Poor old Jason Momoa. For all the problems there were with that “Conan the Barbarian” reboot, he wasn’t one of them. The man mountain probably wouldn’t have been back for a sequel any time soon regardless, but now with Arnie out of retirement, that’s one payday that will never come back around for him. Universal (the studio behind the previous two Arnie Conan films, but not the 2011 reboot) announced last year that they had reacquired the rights to the franchise and were planning “The Legend of Conan” with Arnold Schwarzenegger back as the Cimmerian warrior.
Speaking at a screening of his new film “The Last Stand,” Arnie dropped some details about his return to the Robert E. Howard-created character, and according to him the new film is aiming to shoot in New Zealand at some point later this year. Here’s what he had to say about it:
"[Universal] finally came forward and said, 'You're absolutely right. The previous regime has missed the boat here. We want to pick it up. We're going to buy the rights and we're going to be serious about it and make a quality film with an A-director and with A-writers and so on. And we want you to participate in this. We want you to star and you to play Conan. We're going to take a story where Conan is at that age so it's totally believable and you're not looking like a 30-year old action guy.’”
When Universal first announced that they’d be returning to the franchise, producer Frederik Malmberg stated that the film would follow the original with Arnie’s Conan on the throne as a seasoned warrior. The new film would pick up with Conan as an older man who “knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle.” We’re not sure we'd qualify "Fast Five" writer Chris Morgan as A-list, and no director's yet been selected, but Arnie clearly believes that Universal are taking this one very seriously indeed. Done well, it could be all kinds of fun, and if Arnie’s right, then we could be seeing it in theaters before the end of 2014. [AICN, via Coming Soon]