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UPDATES Who’s ‘Conan The Barbarian’? Two Candidates Considered
EXCLUSIVE: Today’s the day for all things Conan to be resolved. First, there was Conan the late night host getting a whopping check to leave. Now, Conan the Barbarian has been crowned. I hear that Millennium Films, Lionsgate, and rights holder Paradox Entertainment have approved Jason Momoa to star in Conan, the rebirth of the Robert E. Howard-created series. The brawny star of Stargate Atlantis who also stars in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Momoa got the nod over Kellan Lutz, the Twilight guy. I told you that the search for Conan had come down to the duo. Sources said that director Marcus Nispel was sold on Momoa, and won over the filmmakers by shooting a few trial scenes that allowed Momoa to wield a sword and behave very Schwarzenegger-like. This keeps the film on course for a March 15 production start in Bulgaria, and it closes a long ordeal in bringing the saga back to the screen. Paradox originally set up the film with Warner Bros in 2002, and then moved it over to Millenium in 2007.
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let´s start to feed him with kegs of whey protein. He has just 2 months to pump. Somebody have the Stallone dealer´s Phone?
Jason will be perfect. He’s put on muscle for Game of Thrones and cut his dreads off 3 years ago. The man is 6 foot 5. Come on people….have you ever seen him swing a broadsword? He’ll be great.
I really hope so, cause its happing and everything i grew up knowing was that conan was massive killing machine anything, good luck Momoa
He has the tan that Conan got over his long years of wandering but thats about it for actually resembling the character. Even if they give him the square cut black mane (which they probably won’t)or lenses to get the glacial blue eyes (again probably won’t)he is far to scrawny to be considered the strongest man in the Hyborian Age and he is way to pretty. Oh well its not like they are making this for the actual Conan fans.
True that
in my truck right now is a Robert E. Howard Book
Conan the Conqueror, he just cleaved a man shoulder and head off with a 2 hander, and killed a man eating grey ape with a foot long dagger.
Momoa is a great guy, as anyone can tell you, from working on “Stargate Atlantis” in Vancouver. Born in the same year as Heath Ledger (1979) he could always be counted on to drive around town and onto set in a big pink car…have no idea what he looks like now after reconstructive surgery following his bar fracas, but Frazetta’s illustrations of Conan, show a mass of scars, so there ya’ go…
u must be canadian, ur post is all over the place. why point out that he was born in the same year as Ledger..who cares? what does that have to do with anything?
A new Conan movie? with Jason Momoa?
I’m so there!!!
was having a great friday until i came across this article…I grew up watching Conan, had a iguana named Conan, cried when my parents wouldn’t name my brother Conan. This choice of character makes me sick and embarrassed to be a Conan fan…could this dude punch out a camel…I don’t think so
bad choice – my vote is to trash the whole remake idea unless your going to get some huge mutant to play Arnies role
For the record, Roland Kickinger DID play the Terminator in T4- they CG’d him to look more like Arnold, but that’s his name in the credits as “T-800″.And the John Milius-directed CONAN THE BARBARIAN is, in many ways VERY faithful to Howard (big chunks of dialogue are lifted, and it incorporates material from the Kull stories)- but it would be nice to see a Conan that was CELTIC, as his creator made him!
After reading the words Millennium Films, Lionsgate, and filming in Bulgaria in the same paragraph I have to ask the question: Since when did Nikki start reporting on low budget straight to DVD productions?
@joe — “…way to skinny and the hair has to go…”
If you’re talking about the dreads, they went about two years ago because they were giving him neck problems. If you’re talking about his current medium-length ‘do, I’m sure he’d be willing to let the production cut it however they see fit.
And too “skinny”? Really? I mean, he’s not a bodybuilder, but dude has decent muscles. He’s bulked up a bit since his Baywatch days. Admittedly, I’m not terribly familar with the source material, but I find Momoa’s physique just as believable as a barbaric warrior as Shwarzenegger’s, because his agility makes up for the lack of steroids.
this is perfect casting. the only thing Momoa is missing is the muscle mass, and he’s got the time to put that on with some professional help. he’ll eat some horse meat and lift some weights and all the haters will be pleasantly surprised when they see how awesome he’ll be as Conan.
now, if we can only get Jon Hamm to be Captain America…
I guess they are going for the twilight crowd.Wrong,really badly wrong for this.
Too scrawny, skinny & small? Huh? Um, what pictures are y’all looking at? The guy’s 6’4″, he’s athletic, he’s fast, he’s up for any stunt the director wants to throw at him…The only thing I’ve seen him in was Atlantis, and that seems like a pretty good indication he’ll look perfectly fine. He could actually act, too -whenever the writers there gave him something to do. And when they didn’t, he at least gave great reaction to what everyone else was doing. [Wonders what people are worried about...]
What ever happened to the PERFECT choice ?
The ROCK ???????
He would have made the best Conan @!!!!!
You’re joking, right?
He doesn’t look Cimmerian at all. I hate to say this, but Gerard Butler would have been a better choice.
well …..actually you are all missing the point…..its Sigourney Weaver that would make the best choice….soooooo feisty !!!!!
i read the movie a few months ago and hated it and i saw news that they hired a new writer Andy Lobel who they said knocked it out of the park with his draft has anyone read his draft? if so can someone put up a link so i can download it.
Love Jason.
Are you people new to Hollywood or are you just stupid? Jason’s a big guy at 6’4, Kellan barely breaks 6 feet. Besides Jason’s a native Hawaiian, give him six meals a day plus an intense workout routine IN ADDITION to the steroids he’ll be given and in 5 months this guys going to be massive.
It’s obvious Kellan can’t act, and it’s not like the film would do any better with him in it because unless it’s a Twilight movie, no one gives a damn. I say good choice, but still an unneeded remake that I sure as hell won’t pay to see.
amazing how people have no clue about an actor. For one, he no longer has dreads…cut them off years ago actually. He wore a wig for the the entire last season. Also this guy isn’t scrawny..is he big as Arnold was..nope…big as Kickinger…nope…but true fans of Howard are aware that Conan was described as being huge…but huge being about 6’2″ 200lbs or so…. Course also with blue eyes..but that’s a contact change away. Stop complaining folks and wait and see how it turns out!
Ever read a conan book ? it not momao its just it dont look right, and if anyone ever read a book conan kills bears apes with his bare hands and maybe a chain, and everything sense the start looks the same the new guy just dont look right for it.
Momoa and Schwarzenegger have similar acting skills-none. It’s a match made in heaven.
Yes…. have you seen either of them acting in ” King Lear “…? and Acting being the operative word……so how can you define them as Thespians
Ronan the Barbarian?
I dug him in SGA (for as long as I dug SGA), so I’ll see this..
Kickinger would have been great for a full-on remake of the original, but if this is a ‘reimagining’, I can see it working.. I don’t even know if there’s another actor out there in the Frank Frazetta mold? Maybe Christian Bale could put 120lbs of muscle on?
Momoa is EXACTLY who I was hoping they’d cast. First he can act and second, he’s 6’4″ and muscular, not body-builder bulky. Anyone who’s read ANY of the Robert E. Howard stories of Conan (particularly his early adventures) would know that the favourite son of Cimmeria is agile and quick as well as strong and fierce.
Watch some of the YouTube clips of Momoa in knife and fist fights. He sells it. The man ain’t “scrawny” by any stretch of the imagination.
As much as I liked the Ah-nuld movie (the second one was terrible!), the Governator NEVER convinced me that he was Conan. He’s simply too big and bulky to be believable in a sword fight.
Fans of the real Conan might actually get him on film, finally!
Momoa looks like Walt chamberlin from Conan the distroyer to me
I know nothing of REH’s original version being celtic but that is at odds with both Arnold and not even close with Mamoa. This is another example of Hollywood trying to promote racial harmony. No problem with that idea but they are just getting carried away with this stuff. I wonder how they could possibly even match the storyline with the guy’s noneuropean descent. I applaud a remake but do it right. By the way it’s kind of hard to imagine anyone else but Arnold as Conan despite the Celtic origin of the original character versus Arnold being germanic. Why not Gerard Butler? He’s a scotsman.
According to the Wikipedia bio on him, Jason Mamoa has some Irish ancestry on his mother’s side. So there’s Celtic for ya! No one needs a remake of Arnold – I’d like to see a fresh face and a fresh take on the story.
This is a disgrace. As a REH fan, I am really angry with paradox.
I dont care if momoa can use a sword, with training any dumb model can do it.
Hollywood would never use an actual Brit to play a Scot, nevermind an actual Scot. I liked Momoa as Ronan in SGA, but he’s not my idea of what Conan would look like. There is no one alive today who could play Conan the way he was depicted in the REH novels. So we have to make do with Momoa or someone like him. I wonder if a young Sean Connery would have done the role justice…..
Something tells me the director won’t be nearly as skilled as John Milius.