I’ve been very kindly contacted by the movie folk with the details of just what sort of Conan activities will be going on at Comic-Con this year:
FRIDAY JULY 22
- WHAT: Meet CONAN stars Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols, and Stephen Lang in-person!
- WHERE: Lionsgate Booth #3729
- WHEN: 5:00 – 6:00pm
- WHAT: Barbarian Bar Invasion hosted by Jason Momoa & the Hero Complex blog. Stop in for barbaric drink specials & contests!
- WHERE: Bub’s @ The Ballpark, 715 J Street
- WHEN: 7:00 – 9:00pm
SATURDAY JULY 23
- WHAT: Meet CONAN star Rose McGowan!
- WHERE: Dark Horse Booth #2615
- WHEN: 2:00 – 3:00pm
- WHAT: Conan Fan Photo Experience; immortalize yourself in a CONAN-branded photo portrait!
- WHERE: Dark Horse Booth #2615
- WHEN: 3:00 – 6:00pm
THURSDAY – SUNDAY
- WHAT: Vizio Touch Wall; an 11×8 foot interactive touch screen that lets you view trailers & photos, take larger than life pictures of yourself with CONAN stars, and post to your Facebook & Twitter!
- WHERE: Lionsgate Booth #3729
- WHEN: 9:30am – 7:00pm
- WHAT: Yoostar Conan Fan Video Experience; jump in the 3D action of Conan The Barbarian by inserting yourself in the movie!
- WHERE: Lionsgate Booth #3729
- WHEN: 9:30am – 7:00pm
I wish I could attend, but I’m afraid I’ve used up all my Travel to America funds this year. Any Conan Movie Blog watchers and commentators who are attending, do let us know how it all turns out! Especially that Yoostar thing. Extra points if you’re dressed up as a character from another franchise who’s somehow blundered into the Hyborian Age.
Well, Lionsgate are really getting their marketing gear on now, with yet another new one. This time, Dark Horse Comics has an exclusive trailer that reveals a fair amount of new material, including a voiceover from what sounds like Nonso Anozie’s Artus, as well as some new dialogue. And, of course, SPOILERS.
Some thoughts after the jump, and beware of SPOILERS!
This one was sent in directly from Lionsgate’s publicity department:
Normally I would do stills & analysis of this trailer, but frankly, the resolution is so small I question the logic in going to all that effort when there are other, high-resolution trailers I still have to tackle. If a better quality version of the trailer can be found, I’ll certainly go for that, but for now, I’ll stick with the video.
There’s a new Conan the Barbarian trailer featuring blood, beheadings and brutality, and all you have to do is join the UK division of the Barbarian Army on Facebook. (Erm, that means click “like” on the following link.) If you don’t have a Facebook account, I’m afraid you’re out of luck, though hopefully it’ll turn up elsewhere on the ‘net in due time.
EDIT: And here we go!
Oddly, the trailer is for over-18s only…
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR VIEWERS UNDER THE AGE OF 18!
… But the film’s been classified as a 15. How can a 15-rated film have an 18-rated trailer? That… that doesn’t make sense.
Anyway, a couple of things can be seen in the trailer (and I’m so close to finishing the recent TV spot, dammit!), and there are a surprising number of SPOILERS, so be wary when you click.
Looks like Conan the Barbarian has a classification: according to the British Board of Film Classification website, the film will be a 15. What’s also interesting is we have a running time, too.
Release date: 26/08/2011
Running time: 112m 16s
Consumer Advice: Contains strong bloody violence and a sex scene
This work was passed with no cuts made.
Work Information
Director: Marcus Nispel
Cast includes: Jason Momoa, Rose McGowan, Stephen Lang, Ron Perlman, Saïd Taghmaoui, Leo Howard, Steven O’Donnell, Nonso Anozie, Bob Sapp, Milton Welsh
Genre(s): ACTION
Main Language: English
Distributor: Lions Gate UK Ltd
Classified: 14/07/2011
Measured footage: 10103+14 (feet + frames)
BBFC Reference: AFF279293
Registration number: CFJ23901
If the above is accurate, then the runtime for Conan the Barbarian could be just about 1 hour 52 minutes, 17 minutes shorter than the 1982 film. The fact that no cuts were made suggests we won’t have a repeat of the current situation with the 1982 film, where the UK cut has a number of stunts cut due to animal safety laws.
I’m actually rather surprised by the rating: normally the BBFC are tougher on violence than they are on sex, so I thought there was a possibility the film would be an 18 over here in Alba. I guess the film is seriously scraping the upper limits for a 15 certificate.
Well, it’s finally started: the first six of twenty questions with Jason Momoa has been put up on Lionsgate’s official Youtube channel!
I’ll be back with a transcription later: for now, enjoy!
EDIT: Latino Review has a transcript up, which I’ll post here.
How did Marcus Nispel—the director of Conan the Barbarian—describe the new vision of Conan the Barbarian to you?
Marcus is a very visual artist. When he first came to me he had a lot of source material he wanted to show me – not only graphic novels and stuff. Describing the character he wanted his Conan to be like a Sean Connery as Bond – just very charismatic and you fall in love with him. Then there is a certain point where he finds the man who kills his father and obviously that goes out the window and it’s straight Barbarian time.
What drew you personally to taking on the role of Conan the Barbarian?
It’s really, truly an honour to play him. I love the fact that he is not the superhero, he’s a man that’s gritty, he’s truly a man, but under the circumstances he does heroic things.
What do you feel a Conan film needs to be like to engage, captivate and excite the audiences of today?
The world that Hyboria brings, it’s an amazing world the Robert E. Howard created. Action adventures, amazing characters that I think audiences will love. And the fact that it’s in 3D – I just saw it and it was beautiful. It really throws you into that world.
Which of Conan-creator Robert E. Howard’s original stories did the cast and crew draw from the most in developing your creation of Conan?
Because it’s been eight decades of Conan history – whether it be comic book fans, Robert E. Howard fans, Frank Frazetta fans, or the Arnie fans – we tried to re-boot and re-imagine this whole franchise, much in the sense of a Batman or a Bond. And so what we’re doing is really an origin story starting from the very beginning of what it was like when he was born, being cut out of his mother’s womb, becoming this little bad ass warrior and slowly watching his father die in front of his eyes. And then him being this pirate and thief, and slowly finding the man who killed his father. So it’s really dealing with the origin story. We’re pulling from many different Robert E. Howard stories and adding on to them. This is really the essence of Conan in this movie.
Did anything from Robert E. Howard books and Hyborian Age surprise you or speak to you personally?
I love to read and when you read those stories, it’s so well done that you just go into your imagination and you get to create it. That’s the beauty of it. I just love the stories. I love reading them and disappearing into that world. Imagination is everything and one of the greatest things about being an actor is playing pretend. I love the stories, they offer that.
Will there be references to anything from the Conan Comics in the movie, or only to the original Robert E. Howard stories?
Like I said it’s like the essence of Conan. The wardrobe in this is really pulled from the Dark Horse Comics. Obviously the poster looks like the Frank Frazetta painting. We pulled from some of the comics – some do Robert E. Howard’s stories, some do their own. We pulled from a little bit of everything.
What three words best describe Conan to you?
Live. Love. Slay, baby. Live. Love. Slay!
Overall, the interview so far is pretty vague and diplomatic. It would’ve been nice for Jason to at least namedrop a Howard story, even if it’s obviously not an adaptation. But hey, one of my questions was chosen, and a CMB commentator too. That’s pretty awesome.
Not as many news pieces this week, but since I’m still having problems with the latest Stills & Analysis post, I figure I have to get something out.
We’ll start off with some disappointing news: a Little Birdie has regrettably announced that Conan’s eyes won’t be blue in this film.
Conan isn’t gonna have blue eyes. They tried using contacts and after that they tried digital effects and go frame by frame to changes Jasons eyes blue. But the effect looked bad. Jason’s dark skin in combo with the “smoldering blue eyes” looked fake. “Like Eddie Murphy in Vampire of Brooklyn” one guy said. So they just went with his regular eye color.
Tremendously disappointing news for those holding out hope on ensuring one of the fundamental hallmarks of Conan’s appearance would make it in the film. What’s more, it suggests future films will probably have to follow suit, which would be even more disappointing. All the more jarring since the love interest and lead villain do have blue eyes.
Luckily, not all the news is so disappointing. Click on, and hopefully we can wash that disappointing aftertaste away.
Hello fellow Conan movie fans (Waldgeist here )! Since Funcom will be releasing a movie tie-in for the upcoming Conan Movie, I thought it would be a good opportunity to inform you, that Funcom has changed the business model for the MMORPG Age of Conan and renamed it to Age of Conan: Unchained. It’s now a hybrid model with an item-shop and a free-to-play component!
Funcom has been working together with Lionsgate to promote the movie and they’ve been likewise pointing people to the virtual version of the Hyborian Age, so I’d thought I’d share this little fact with you too, just in case you want to jump in and try Age of Conan: Unchained and be ready for the Savage Coast of Turan movie-tie in later this year, to follow in the footsteps of Movie-Conan to the land of Turan, to meet characters from the movie some twenty years later.
A little teaser for you: our very own Taranaich has also sent out a couple of questions to the Funcom Team about the movie-tie in, which we hope to get back after the summer break (some time in August).
There were a couple of articles I neglected to post back in June, so I’ve included them in this roundup, as well as some pictures of Rachel Nichols making funny faces. Gotta have some pictures to spice up the blog, right?
Sorry for the lack of updates, but to tide you over, here’s the latest Conan the Barbarian poster, revealed by Fandango.com:
We can see Conan, Tamara, Marique and Khalar Zym forming the main part of the poster; in the background we see the towers of Khor Khala on the left and what might be Asgalun on the right; Tamara on the sacrificial wheel above the title, with the Dweller’s tentacles writhing around; the Mask of Acheron forming the background; and Conan’s other sword on the lower left, with Conan holding the deer-skull sword. Lots of orange and teal, as seems to be the style for modern posters. The tagline, “Enter an Age Undreamed Of,” is of course a nice reference to the opening paragraph of “The Phoenix on the Sword,” which was also the inspiration for the 1982 film’s opening narration.
Overall, quite a nice poster, though it would’ve been nicer painted. This strikes me as the sort of composition Drew Struzan or Bob Peak would do: a shame they didn’t get someone to paint this poster instead of digital.
EDIT: Courtesy of Lord Greystoke, here’s a high resolution version of the poster! It’s a big one, though, so I’ve put it after the Read More.
)! Since Funcom will be releasing a movie tie-in for the upcoming Conan Movie, I thought it would be a good opportunity to inform you, that Funcom has changed the business model for the MMORPG Age of Conan and renamed it to 
