The Cimmerian’s Gallic stalwart Miguel Martins has alerted me to an interview with Saïd Taghmaoui, who is starring as a thief who plays a significant role in the film. Miguel has also provided a translation of the interview: Merci beaucoup, mon ami!

Conan, we’ve just finished the shooting.
I don’t know, I think it will be for December. It’s something huge, Conan, it has been awaited, because it is a cult film. I had the luck and honor to participate in this extraordinary adventure. They called me, they offered me the part. It’s just very pleasant, you know. Being acknowledged like that helps you to build yourself as an human being. You can expect a Conan revisited in 3D, a little bit like 300. A little bit harder, with fights more violent and special effects a little bit more crazy. It will be very interesting. I adored Conan when I was younger. It [Taghmaoui pauses] … overwhelmed me. These love scenes…I was 15, 14. It was the first time that I saw that in a cinema. Those muscular men… Conan, it was a little revolution. It had a whole phantasmagoric universe, and it touched me. So when they offered me to act in that [movie], I asked : “where do I sign?” I don’t even need to read the script, tell me where I have to sign, I just want to do it. Furthermore, it is a trilogy, and my character…if there’s a Conan 2, I’ll be there. It’s cool, you know. It’s also a way to show that we can do films set in the Middle-Ages while being of Arab origin. I would have dreamed of playing d’Artagnan in France. Why not? Ask the French authors. Conan, it’s the Middle-Ages, GI Joe, it’s a super-heroes, futuristic movie and we can make them without a problem in the United States… If we succed in opening breaches like that through what I achieve internationally, and if a million Saïds become actors, I would be the happiest man on Earth. It is between you and yourself, you and your imagination, you and the audience. You can achieve everything if you think you’re able to do it, when you give yourself the means to succeed…yes we can!

Première is a prestigious French film magazine, so to see an interview for the film is pretty significant — not to mention another French scoop for the film. The Cimmerian may be gone, but Miguel’s scoops keep on coming. It is great to hear Saïd is enthusiastic about the role, and he seems to appreciate the “melting pot” of cultures the Hyborian Age offers.

An Arab d’Artagnan… Hmm.

Via Conan the Movie on Facebook, we have two new stills from Conan: clearer, cleaner versions of the ones printed in August’s issue of Empire.

That first picture is what they should’ve gone with from the beginning. Sure, Jason isn’t the hypertrophied behemoth Arnold was, but his expression says a thousand words. Most of those words being “kill” in multiple synonyms, variations, languages and euphemisms. Jason’s really starting to look like “the damnedest bastard there ever was.” The second I’m not feeling quite as much. His hair looks a bit like an Uruk-Hai from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings (though undoubtedly that’s due to the high speed he’s going) and I still hate the LARP sword and manica. Still, he certainly looks like he’s mastered the art of equestrianism, which looked like a substantial barrier only a few months ago: good on ya, Momo!

Much like James Purefoy as Solomon Kane, Jason is really growing on me as Conan: the effort he’s made to be true to Howard is clear to see even in these shots, and reports from the set confirm his enthusiasm. If only the same could be said of the scriptwriters, the director, the distributors…

Despite Lionsgate apparently not being at Comic-Con (as apparently erroneously reported in Empire), I get the distinct feeling that this is the calm before a storm of publicity. At least, I presume it is, though it’s likely that Lionsgate are still just dragging their heels on publicity for the Conan film.

So, it’s a slow news day, but I came across an interesting little snippet at MMAJunkie:

It looks like Australia isn’t on “Sapp time.”

Gargantuan heavyweight and entertainment personality Bob Sapp (11-6-1) today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that he has been pulled from a fight with Soa Palelei (9-2) at “Impact FC 2: The Uprising – Sydney.”

Sapp, who is currently in Bulgaria after recently completing work on a remake of “Conan the Barbarian,” said he received an email today from the Australian MMA startup informing him that the promotion would not fly him to Sydney for the July 18 fight because the plane ticket is too expensive.

Now why is Sapp still in Bulgaria, when principal photography has been over for a good few weeks? Presumably, this is for the secondary work which goes on after principal photography: reshoots, voiceovers, promotional pictures, whatnot. It appears Ukafa’s work is done.

Yet despite Sapp having finished his time on Conan, we still haven’t seen pictures of Ukafa, either from Bulgarian paparazzi or official shots. We don’t even have photos of any of the other major cast members. Contrast this with Thor, where we’ve seen publicity shots of the titular thunder god, Odin, Loki, and Jane Foster, in addition to behind-the-scenes footage and movie stills: we haven’t seen anything for Khalar Zym, Tamara, Ukafa, Marique or Corin. We don’t even know who’s cast as Lucius, Ilira or Fassir, who were important secondary characters in the leaked casting call. All we’ve seen from Conan are stuntmen, harem girls, and liberated refugees from the set of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but — get yer act together Lionsgate!

Earlier in the week, Waldgeist posted on the upcoming snippet and exclusive photo of Jason Momoa’s Conan in the August 2010 issue of Empire. I got the issue today: in addition with apparently conclusive confirmation of Conan’s presence at Comic-Con, there are a few hints of what to expect at San Diego.

Marcus Nispel’s Conan arrives at Comic-Con with something to prove. Fans of Robert E. Howard’s stories have thus far been skeptical about the decidedly non-Howard script (by multiple authors, Sahara writers Josh Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly chief among them), and Nispel’s CV of Platinum Dunes horror remakes and flashily muddled Vikings-versus-Native American epic Pathfinder has done little to inspire confidence.

However, Nispel claims that Conan is a lifelong dream project, and with him at the helm we’re at least assured terrific visuals. Fears of a watered-down fantasy-adventure tone have also been laid to rest by producer Joe Gatta, who assured Empire that the Cimmerian barbarian is aiming his axe squarely at a visceral R rating.

Stargate: Atlantis’ Jason Momoa has taken the title role, boasting a considerably more athletic physique than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic bodybuilding form: this Conan is built for speed. Avatar’s big, bad Stephen Lang is the villainous warlord Khalar Zym; Rachel Nichols is love interest Tamara; Ron Perlman (replacing Mickey Rourke at short notice) is Conan’s dad, Corin; and Rose McGowan is on hand as Marique the Witch.

Conan’s Con presence will be decidedly multimedia,, as the crew from the online PC game Age of Conan will be attending in force, and Dark Horse will be handing out exclusive comics. Plus, “We might have one or two stars making a little appearance,” Conan Properties CEO Fredrik Malmberg reveals, “and we might be able to show some footage. It’s all about what (distributor) Lionsgate allow us to do!”

So overall, it’s fairly optimistic, but commendably well-grounded, especially in addressing the most pertinent fears Nispel and company have to deal with. It certainly appears that the Conan movie will be making a substantial appearance at Comic-Con, and the idea of guests and even advanced footage will hopefully give us a further idea of how the film’s shaping up. REH Forumer Lord Greystoke provides scans of the exclusive images, the largest of which I’ve tried to clean up a bit, though due to the nature of the scan, Momoa’s right half is quite a bit skinnier than it should be. The second is a smaller picture of Conan on horseback: it’s good to know Momoa has overcome his fear of horse riding.

In related news, Mark Finn, REH scholar and author of Blood & Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, the definitive Robert E. Howard biography, will be moderating a panel at Comic-Con on – what else? – Robert E. Howard in the comics:

Ladies and Gents,

Is anyone else going to San Diego Comic-Con this year? I’ll be onhand, pressing the flesh, and as of right now, moderating a panel on Saturday. What’s the panel, you ask?

Saturday July 24
Robert E. Howard in Comics: Then. Now. Always.:
3:30-4:30
Room 24ABC
Robert E. Howard is seen as the grandfather of the sword and sorcery fiction genre. He’s created such classic characters as Kull the Conqueror, Red Sonya, and Conan the Barbarian that have lived in comics for more than 40 years! Explore worlds of magic, bravery, and savage revenge as this panel delves in to Robert E. Howard’s timeless fiction in comics of the past, present and future.

This was brainstormed by a buddy of mine from Boom! Studios, and it’s going to be a multicompany panel. If any of you are attending this year, I thought this would be a good place for a meet-up. It would be nice to meet you (well, some of you…) face-to-face and shake your hand after the panel. Does this sound like a plan for anyone? If you’re attending, please reply below so we can get an idea of who we’re looking for.

Mark Finn, one of the most vigorous critics of the upcoming Conan film, in the same building as its first major marketing push… It’ll be interesting, to say the least!

UPDATE: Sadly, it looks like the REH Panel won’t be taking place at Comic-Con, due to schedule conflicts and other such bureaucratic mummery.  Fail, Comic-Con.

MTV News posted a new interview with Stephen Lang on the subject of Conan. He mostly reiterated everything we know from past interviews: that Momoa will be a “terrific Conan,” that he had to rely upon all his “wolf-like wiles” to defeat him, and that Khalar Zym is the baddest warlord on the planet.

Of particular interest is his response to the interviewer’s question on where he drew the character from:

“Oh, just my home life! Heh, just life at home with my wife & kids, and I just sort of lightened it up a little bit. No, uh, I don’t know where I pulled it from – I pulled it outta my ass! But I had a great time doing it, though, it was great fun.”

In the interests of impartiality, I can only speculate on where Donnelly & Opphenheimer drew forth the character…

Now that the movie is fully shot and done, more and more scenes dribble into the public. Here now is a row of images, that were published by Julie Nicholls – she got them from a contact – a follower of the Conan Movie Blog Facebook page. Thanks a lot Julie for sharing those and not just staring at them in private. Much appreciated.

If you also have pictures like those and want to share them, with the rest of the Conan Movie community, just throw me a mail at webmaster – at – conanmovieblog.com. If any of you wants to become a regular contributor to the blog, your of course also welcome

Just click on them, to get a higher resolution version as usual.

We’ve waited for official pictures, to spread the news and be respectful to the producers and Paradox Entertainment, so they get a chance to show off their main hero and the movie in the best way possible. They passed on that opportunity and let practically anyone spread horrible pictures, blurry, shaky mobile pictures around the world, without ever coming forward with even the same pictures, that were already leaked in high quality. Since this is a fansite for the Conan movie, we didn’t want to keep anyone waiting any longer.

So here is a collection of all Conan Set pictures, that we could find on the web so far. We apologize to Paradox Entertainment for putting this public, but we’ve waited months for better shots and at some point, we have to give the interested what they come here for: The newest info and rumour on the Conan Movie.

We will extend the Conan Set Gallery when new stuff arrives and we gladly take down all those shaky, blurry shots if Millenium or Paradox decide to put out high quality set shots and stills of the movie. We really don’t want to damage the Conan movie or it’s public appeal, but now that really every film site on the planet has leaked those shaky pictures, there is not much harm, that we can do with it.

Thanks to the comment made by “Stampfer”, we were directed to an article on filmneweurope, that reveals some of the shooting locations that the new Conan movie is supposedly shot at. The locales range from a river consisting of very large boulders, over mountain locations in the north of Bulgaria to the Mediterranean looking coastline of the Black Sea. Certainly Bulgaria has a lot to offer when it comes to spectacular and versatile backdrops for a movie, taking place in pre-ancient times.

Since we know that Conan travels a great distance in the movie, it’s good to see that they will use actual locations and not try to make too much in the studio. I like it when movies are shot on location, because it delivers a certain realism, that even the most advanced foam rocks, artificial forests and the like cannot transport. Let’s see how they mould, light and cut those already nice looking locations into an illusion of an Hyborian Age, that is worthwhile exploring.

It seems we are going to have a lot of motherly love in Conan, because the trusted source revealed, that another mom of one of the main cast – in this case the witch mother of Marique (Rose McGowan) – Italian actress Gisella Marengo has been cast. So far Gisella Marengo has been mostly active in Italian movies. Besides the fact that she will play the role of the witch mother of Rose McGowan, not much is known about her part in the movie, so we have to wait until more is unveiled of how large the part, that she will play, really is.

It’s interesting to see, that the smaller the part, the more “howardian” the women get. Even though she will play a mom, she throws in a more voluptuousness  than all of the other actresses that were cast up to this point. We will see if they will utilize her in any sensual way, or if she will be wrapped in layers of witch clothes. All I can say is, the more sensual women we get, the better; especially if they are of Italian heritage (this has nothing to do of course with me being practically married to an Italian woman )

According to a trusted source, the mother, who gives birth to Conan on the battlefield and dies in the process, has been cast. It’s Laila Rouass! A UK born actress spending most of her career so far on the TV screens of the world. According to the plot synopsis and her casting description, the role for Conan’s mother is not really that extensive, so we won’t see much of her on screen.

She certainly is a pretty woman – with the right curves on the right places – though I wonder how the mixture of Perlman and her should produce a son like Momoa. Perlman looking like a brutish man from the stone-age (that is meant in the most positive way possible) and she looking like a delicate Indian flower. As always it will be down to Make-up, how she will look in the scene. The whole blood and mud combination though can produce practically any effect and look one can imagine. She has a very strong face and I hope those beautiful eyes are able to capture the viewer in her dying moments and evoke some emotion.