Arnold to play Conan in “The Legends of Conan”

It’s been thirty years since the Austrian body-builder donned the famous garb of Conan the Cimmerian. Since then he’s gone on to star in several blockbuster films, and was elected as Governor of California twice. Now, having left office, Schwarzenegger has slowly crept back into his acting groove, leading to the announcement by Universal Pictures that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be reprising his role as the gloomy barbarian in, The Legend of Conan. Paradox Entertainment, whose CEO Fredrick Malmberg is one of the films producers, was behind the 2011 reboot staring actor Jason Momoa.

Overall the 2011 ‘Conan the barbarian’ was not well received, achieving a 23% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Although Momoa more than fit the role as Conan physically, the writing was left to be desired. Malberg has stated that this film is what the 2011 reboot should have been. “The original ended with Arnold on the throne as a seasoned warrior, and this is the take of the film we will make,” Malmberg told deadline.com. “It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle.”

According to Malmberg “The Legend of Conan” will not only skip over the Momoa Conan revival, but also Schwarzenegger own 1984 sequel. “After the original seminal movie, all that came after looked silly to me,” Morgan stated. “Robert E. Howard’s mythology and some great philosophy from Nietzsche to Atilla the Hun was layered in the original film. People say, he didn’t speak for the first 20 minutes of the film, but that was calculated in depicting this man who takes control of life with his own hand. This movie picks up Conan where Arnold is now in his life, and we will be able to use the fact that he has aged in this story. I love the property of Conan so much that I wouldn’t touch it unless we came up with something worthy. We think this is a worthy successor to the original film. Think of this as Conan’s Unforgiven.”

The 1982 film was responsible for launching Schwarzenegger’s film career, as Robert E. Howard’s famous Barbarian in two films (technically three), Arnold marked himself has an action hero not to be messed with. Now, thirty years later, he will be returning to the role that started it all. “I always loved the Conan character and I’m honored to be asked to step into the role once again.”, Arnold said,”I can’t wait to work with Universal and the great team of Fredrik Malmberg and Chris Morgan to develop the next step of this truly epic story.”

Although Arnold is much older and is still just stepping back into the water, I have to admit I’m a little excited. Not just because it will bring a great sense of nostalgia, but because the concept of the movie is riveting. Conan, in his later years, searching for one final battle to usher him into the hands of Crom. How awesome is that? It’ll be interesting to see how Schwarzenegger’s age fits into this new film. No release date has been announced, but Universal co-president of production Jeff Kirschenbaum is set to oversee the project.