Jason Momoa was among the stars attending the New York Comic Con, and here’s a video of the panel, with Rose McGowan and Stephen Lang. They discuss things like fandom interaction, comparisons with San Diego Comic Con, ideal roles, and Conan being a “family film” (tongue-in-cheek, of course). I can’t embed the video, so you’ll have to click the link, sadly.

There was more from the panel not recorded in the video, as FilmBuffOnline also has information:

Although it got trashed by the critics (scoring a 23% at Rotten Tomatoes) audiences who came out to see this past summer’s fantasy adventure Conan The Barbarian seemed to enjoy the film, giving it a “B minus” CinemaScore. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough audiences showing up to see the film to hit any higher than fourth place at the box office its opening weekend.

This weekend at New York Comic Con, the film’s three stars Jason Momoa, Rose McGowan and Stephen Lang appeared at a panel to discuss the film. Invariably, the subject of the film’s poor box office and the chance of a sequel came was brought up. Momoa, who had stated when he was doing promotion for the film that he had written a story for a possible sequel, stated that there was little possibility that a sequel would happen.

“I haven’t heard a word from anyone and it’s kind of sad because I feel a little cheated myself because we really busted our asses to make it amazing for the fans. I was a fan and I think we really hit it but to tell you the truth a lot of people didn’t go see it so I doubt that they’ll make a sequel. I would love it, but there would be less money there and [a sequel] is something that I would want to be bigger and better.”

McGowan jumped in to add that a fate of a movie can often be outside the control of its cast and crew, stating that the film’s R rating may have kept some audiences away while the PG-13 rated horror film Fright Night, which opened the same day, further siphoned off potential ticket buyers.

“People don’t understand behind the scenes stuff.  Lionsgate and Millennium, the people behind [the movie], to an extent did a really good job. But the entire distribution team at Lionsgate just got replaced. Also the second weekend Hurricane Irene happened and two-thirds of the country was shut down so it was just bad luck essentially.”

McGowan went on to draw an analogy as to what it was like to make a film she was proud of only to have it fail at the box office. “It’s essentially like giving birth to this really great baby, you hand it to the nurse and it falls out of her hands and flies out the window,” she said.

“They dropped my baby?” questioned Momoa after the laughter in response to McGowan’s statement died down.

“They did!” she replied. “They drop kicked it!”

Lang added that he has participated in a number films that weren’t successful right away but still went on to find their audiences. He also stated that he was disappointed that he wouldn’t get to see more of his castmate Momoa continue to explore the character of Conan in future films.

“It’s really easy to do a postmortem on the thing. I think that the R didn’t help the business of the film one bit. Maybe it was necessary for the movie. I see that. I think Rose says it pretty well that the distribution didn’t work out quite it should have. I sure wish this one had done much better than it did. I think it deserved a number of sequels and I would like to see Jason track that character for a long time.”

While my thoughts on the film’s marketing and quality are out there, I wouldn’t rule out Hurricane Irene as a contributing factor to its poor financial returns, what with over a thousand cinemas being closed over the end of the second weekend.  Ah well.

You cannot kill what does not live, and since Conan Movie Blog doesn’t technically count as a lifeform (yet) it continues to occassionally sound its barbaric yawp as the next piece of Conan-related movie news comes along. Today, it’s the trailer for the blu-ray release, as seen on Movieweb:

A home entertainment debut as fierce as the warrior himself, Lionsgate brings Conan the Barbarian to 3D/2D Blu-ray Disc, 2D Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Download and On Demand this November. In an epic battle led by an epic hero, Jason Momoa (HBO’s Game of Thrones) stars as Conan, the Cimmerian set on avenging his father’s death. The action-packed film, directed by Marcus Nispel (Friday the 13th), also stars Rachel Nichols (Star Trek), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Rose McGowan (Planet Terror) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy).

Based on the character of Conan as originally created by Robert E. Howard, a boy born on the battlefield grows into a hulking warrior hell-bent on avenging his father’s death. But Conan’s personal vendetta soon escalates into an epic battle of impossible odds, facing the fiercest of rivals and the most horrific of monsters.

I like this press release a lot better than the one on Blu-Ray.com: it reads better, they choose better “as seen in” references for the stars (seriously, if you were Rachel Nichols, would you rather be associated with Star Trek or G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra?) and it’s a better description of the film itself. Movieweb also has artwork matching the pictures seen in our last report.

As for the trailer… I’m amazed they’re still using the terrible “beta” animation for the Mask of Acheron instead of the one that appears in the film (and the first bloody trailer), not to mention Movie Trailer Guy mispronounces Conan’s name despite the correct pronunciation being used by Rachel Nichols twice within the same twenty seconds, but to be perfectly frank, it’s kind of what I’ve come to expect from whoever makes these trailers. Ah well, the important thing is it lets people know Conan 2011 exists, and if you shied away from it at the cinemas, you can always rent it across multiple media platforms. Who knows, Conan 2011 may yet prove to have legs on the home video market.

And, just because, here’s the Conan 2011 Hungarian DVD:

I like it better than both the US and UK releases.

From Bluray.com:

In November, Lionsgate Home Entertainment will bring the recent Conan the Barbarian reboot to Blu-ray. The film debuted last August and played on both 2D and 3D theatrical screens.

Director Marcus Nispel’s film finds Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Cimmerian hero. Teamed up with a beautiful monastery student (Rachel Nichols, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Conan undertakes a quest to avenge the death of his father (Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy).

Ultimately, his journey puts him at odds with brutal warring peoples, grotesque creatures, and the evil Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang, Avatar), a warlord determined to rule Hyborea alongside his sorceress daughter Marique (Rose McGowan, Scream).

Lionsgate presents the film in two Blu-ray editions – a standard 2D Blu-ray version and a Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray 2D/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack.

While the studio has yet to confirm their respective technical specifications, both sets will contain the following special features:

• Two audio commentaries
• A history of the Conan franchise featurette
• The Man Who Would Be Conan: Robert E. Howard featurette
• Two additional featurettes on the action and fight scenes

The 2D and 3D versions of Conan the Barbarian street on November 22nd.

Sounds like we’re not getting an extended edition, but will be getting some deleted scenes. I’m very intrigued/apprehensive about the “history of Conan” and Howard featurettes, and wondering who’ll be on the audio commentaries: I suspect one will have the stars, and one the production. Not sure if it’ll be enough to convince me to buy it, though.

The report also has two box art pictures up, though again, they could just be placeholders.  They’re very similar box art to the TBC mockups on Amazon, though with the “sword logo, and having swapped the oversaturated red and yellow with a blue & orange tint, inadvertently transforming Khalar’s soldiers into blue lobsters:

At least it doesn’t have those dubious single word endorsements from FHM and Nuts. “Brilliant!” “Awesome!” Put those along with “Monstrously Entertaining!” and “Top-Knotch!” I don’t know whether to be bothered or thankful that Robert E. Howard isn’t mentioned on either cover, but no doubt his name will be on the back.

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up to date on the blog, Cromrades: various factors have conspired, which shall be addressed after the jump.

First up, let’s look at the news I haven’t already reported on:

• Art Andrews has a massive collection of photographs of props and costumes from the film at his Flickr;
• David Pomerico talks to Suvudu.com about Conan the Barbarian: The Stories That Inspired The Movie;
• Michael A. Stackpole’s novelization of Conan the Barbarian is reviewed at CSI: Librarian;
• SummerGlauWiki (of all places) has scans from SyFyNow’s four page article on the film;
• Rose McGowan has interviews with Montreal Gazette and Comic Book Resources;
• Film School Rejects speaks with Marcus Nispel (and it explains a lot about how the film turned out, IMO);
• Jason Momoa has interviews with USAToday, Miami News Times, The Huffington Post, ;
• Collider has a neat interview with Ron Perlman and Leo Howard;
• Gotcha Movies has a report on the Alamo Drafthouse Premiere (you can see a couple of familiar Howardian faces in the front row);
• The Sofia Echo reports a 24th August gala premiere for Conan the Barbarian (and with the way box office has been going stateside, I bet the producers are praying for the highest grossing film in Bulgarian history)
• Hollywood Outbreak chats with Rachel Nichols in a podcast;
• Honolulu Pulse brought the disappointing news that Jason Momoa couldn’t make it home for Hawaii’s premiere;
• The Daily Billboard has some nice images of the Conan billboards;
• at least seven new images from the film are up at filmering.at; 
• Conan: The Mask of Acheron has sold out;
• Bakersfield Now has photographs of the US Premiere;

The final report on Conan the Barbarian’s takings this weekend are up at Box Office Mojo, and… well, I’ll let the report speak for itself:

Conan the Barbarian went the way of past August fantasy/ancient action movies and flopped hard. Joining the ranks of Kull the Conqueror and The Last Legion and grabbing less interest than even The 13th Warrior, Conan reaped an estimated $10 million on around 4,500 screens at 3,015 locations. It was a far cry from the 1982 Conan, which had over three times the attendance on its opening weekend, though it had a similar gross ($9.6 million).

The Conan remake’s marketing relied on the brand name and generic fantasy action instead of presenting a compelling story and strong characters. The movie’s director, Marcus Nispel, was also responsible for the similar dud Pathfinder. With roughly 2,100 locations, 3D was 61 percent of Conan‘s take. Distributor Lionsgate’s exit polling showed that 65 percent of Conan‘s was male and 69 percent was over 25 years old.

Until we know how the film did on the international market, though, we can’t put the “flop” stamp on it just yet. In terms of opening weekends, however, it does appear to be something of a disaster.

State of the Blog

Alright Cromrades, I feel it’s my duty to inform you about what’s happening with the blog now that the film’s out.

In short, it’ll still be running, but not at nearly the same level of regularity as it has been. There are a number of factors: the first being burnout. I and others have been working hard on the site, and I’d rather slow to an easy pace than crash into a wall at high-speed. Another is more insidious: my general opinion of the film itself. As I said in my review, I, uh, had problems with it. The fact that I had such problems with it led to a sort of crisis, as I felt I had spent so much time and energy on a film that I feel didn’t deserve the effort. I felt angry, insulted and ultimately depressed. Now that I’ve learned the film hasn’t exactly been doing gangbusters over the weekend, I feel a great draining of energy.

Nonetheless, I’m not beaten: I just need to pick my battles, as it were. Future posts on the CMB will either be short links posted on a regular basis, as seen above, or longer ones posted irregularly. I don’t want to use a schedule, as there can be no telling when news will come and at what saturation, but I hope the community which has emerged in the past few years will mean there’s always something for new visitors each day, be it in the comments or forums.

It might interest you all to know that we recently reached a significant milestone, passing 1,000,000 individual views yesterday. The film might not be doing great, but the blog’s chugging along for now. I couldn’t have done it without you all, and although the film wasn’t what I was hoping it to be, I couldn’t be more overwhelmed at the community that’s flocked around it. You are the vital spark which kept me galvanized, even through the disappointments, trials and tribulations. For that, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Well, let’s not get all maudlin: coming up, I’m putting together a pool of the best reviews – not in terms of how well/poorly they rate the film, but in terms of insight, perspective and eloquence, that they might help us look at the film from a different perspective. Until then, keep on clicking: maybe we’ll get another 2 million before we’re done!

Gearing up for the big day!

The Conan 3D Facebook page has a new picture of Leo Howard’s young Conan running amid fire and chaos in his home village:

For more, you will know it by the click of the link.

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So, the premiere has passed. I’ll leave it to the likes of Examiner to analyse the upholstery of the attending ladies (“Elsa Pataky wore a pleated chiffon cream colored dress with black detailing at the neck, which matched her black pumps” while “Rachel Nichols’s cream sequined dress with the side cutouts was a winner as well”), but I’ll provide a few pics and snippets I found of interest. According to various reports, castmembers Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols, Rose McGowan, Ron Perlman, Leo Howard, Bob Sapp and Milton Welsh were in attendance, as well as director Marcus Nispel. I’m afraid I don’t know who Elsa Pataky or Tom Arnold are, but they were there, as was Patrick Muldoon (who will always be Zander from Starship Troopers to me) and I’ll assume their presence at the premiere was indeed vital and entirely necessary.

For the earliest reviews punctuated with pictures, videos and interviews…

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One of the benefits of being an Albannach* means I can be a sort of time-traveller: many parts of the world, especially America, are a few hours behind, so I can almost speak from the future. For instance, right now it’s 2AM (late night for me), but in Los Angeles, it’s 6PM – and thus, Conan the Barbarian has its Hollywood premiere on US soil in two hours’ time, with Jason Momoa arriving at the LA Airport some three hours ago.

In a few hours, we may be hearing the first “free” reviews of Conan the Barbarian beyond those ones previously reported on Conan Movie Blog, in that (as far as I know) they won’t be bound by anonymity or legal ramifications. If anyone’s attending the premiere, or if anyone finds a review in the coming hours, don’t hesitate to link or comment in the comments section: pictures, photos, hints, reviews, quotes, anything. The more reviews there are available, the more comfortable I’ll be in being honest and fair in my review on Monday.

*Scotsman for non-Gaels.

In this Associated Press interview, Jason (quite rightly) addresses the Arnold question by bringing up Sean Connery and Daniel Craig both being awesome James Bonds, and Jack Nicholson & Heath Ledger being fantastic Jokers, which is exactly the sort of thing people should keep in mind:

After the break we have more interviews, including a tantalizing glimpse of the best poster for this film I’ve seen yet. But the only way forward is through the gates of the silver click…

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First, a new image of Alina Puscau in the costume she wears in the film:

Alina has been featured in the Pepe Jeans and Victoria Secret campaigns as well as in magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Allure. In 2009 she was featured on the cover of Playboy magazine in a shoot by Hollywood director Brett Ratner. Alina is signed with Elite Model Management.

On August 11th Alina will make her acting debut in the upcoming summer blockbuster Conan the barbarian in which she plays one of the slaves who rebels against oppression.

For more news, click onwards.

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Being a dweller in the proud nation of Alba, I’d been precluded from viewing the latest edition of The Tonight Show, and thus stewed at my American fellows for being able to see the new footage of the upcoming Conan seen on the show. However, NBC has deigned to allow access on their own site, where we can see it:

Not as long as “When Blood is Spilled,” but we see more main characters, including adult Conan and more.

EDIT: I’ve been getting reports that the clip cuts off before the footage, so I tried looking again and… it cuts off before the footage. Now I’m very annoyed. NBC, you made a liar out of me! I’d be very grateful if someone could direct me to a version of the video not under the draconian region-specific software that makes things such a preposterous pain for people who don’t live in the United States.