If you love the beat in the trailer for The Last Stand in which Arnold Schwarzenneger acknowledges the dust he’s shaking off to be an action star again, get ready for more.

According to the Chris Morgan –producer and possible screenwriter– The Legend Of Conan will have no shame about wearing Arnold’s age on its face, and will actually focus on it for its thematic center.

“…he has to access the barbarian he was in his youth. I love that Conan has been many things in his life, notably a pirate, a major tactician and a commander of men. In this movie, we’re going to tap into some of those things – things you haven’t seen on screen yet.”

This really the only path- Arnold’s still in great shape, but you’re not going to have him running around oiled up and shirtless much anymore, and biology mandates that he’s never going to be as titanically bulky as he was three decades ago. This necessitates that admission-of-age action star that Sylvester Stallone has been perfecting in his Expendables films and Rocky Balboa. It’s an approach that allows these films to get away with old guys being superheroic badasses by embracing wry humor and relative humility.

“I want the warrior whose joints have started to fuse together, who has to crack the cartilage so he can pick up a sword again. I want the guy who’s not necessarily lost a step, but there’s some rust he has to shake off. I want to embrace that. It makes it a greater hero story.”

I’m still shocked this is getting off the ground as quickly as it is –the studio wants it going for a 2014 release– considering the failure of the reboot and the relative lackluster returns on decades-later sequels like Superman Returns and Tron: Legacy. Stallone has managed it with some success obviously, but swords-and-sandals fantasy is a tougher genre to sell in general, and it remains to be seen how much Schwarzenegger nostalgia is worth at the box office.

Morgan hopes to write the film, but he’s got Fast & Furious 7 to churn out beforehand, so his role may stay at “heavily involved producer.” He’s passionate about the project it seems, so expect more words from his as this gears up next year.

 

Source | LA Times