Members of the Official Robert E Howard forum got their hands on some poor quality pics of Jason Momoa in costume as Conan in the new low-budget, low-rent Conan movie. He looks like a football player going to a Halloween party dressed as Hawkeye (Last of the Mohicans, not M*A*S*H).
This reboot comes from Marcus Nispel, who gave us one bad barbarian movie already with Pathfinder. Momoa is best known from his role as a Klingon rip-off in Stargate: Atlantis; he also got into a barfight at a place I like called Birds in Hollywood and had hundreds of stitches put in his face during reconstructive surgery. He also schtups Lisa Bonet on the regular.
I have a script for this Conan laying around but have never found the wherewithal to actually read it. I really hope that my general malaise about this project is ill-informed and that I am proven incredibly wrong when the film is finally released sometime next year.
There’s a bunch more pictures at the forum, but in the meantime, check out this image of Momoa playing Conan the Pensive.
18 comments
The last pic looks pretty good, but yeah, I don't have high hopes for this. At least they fixed his hair.
wat tyler,
You are dumb.
Dammit, I'd rather Lisa Bonet as Conan and this guy as Grace Jones.
This right on the heels of the news that the great Frank Frazetta has died. Looking at Frazetta's rendering of 'The Barbarian' just proves how piss-weak this new movie will be.
Rewrite draft reads like a lost Howard tale. I wish they went with Sqaure cut mane but all in all he looks the part. If you have the same draft I do (Donnelly/Oppenheimer Oct 09) and are a Conan fan then it is worth the read.
Birds, Devin? Really? Doesn't the improv crowd get to you? They can be a bit much.
Frank died? Bloody hell. Didn't his wife die very recently too? Holy shit. What a bummer. Total legend. Pathfinder: WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD movie. A z-grade premise with over-done arty photography and art direction. I forget, but I think it may have been a Sin City type of deal, making an attempt to render a graphic novel as a movie? Worth seeing for all the wrongness going on.
RIP Frank Frazetta. Fuck this soft ass shit.
With so many rippling-muscled wrestlers and mixed martial artists out there, why go with some milano duochebag who's only "kinda" in-shape??? Triple-H should've ben Conan…that would've at least guaranteed some DVD sales…
He looks more like the classic Marvel "Savage Sword of Conan" representation, but this movie is still gonna bomb so hard. Is Soloman Kane ever going to get distributed in the U.S.?
Motherfucker looks like Richard Kiel in the long lost Captain Caveman film. Fuck this noise.
Solomon Kane was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad
SyFy channel original movie. Nuff said.
I just don't understand the casting. I mean, Christ, you're telling me there aren't a million and one steroid-bloated bodybuilders, wrestlers, or generic athletes to fill the role of Conan? After Arnold – who was friggin' massive at the time – you honestly can't ask anyone to buy into a Conan who is just average in size and muscle mass. And the argument that "some bodybuilder/wrestler/whatever won't have the acting chops to handle the role" doesn't fly, because neither does this Momoa clown. Hell, a wrestle would almost be an ideal choice, because Conan is more about communicating through facial expressions and body language than a whole lot of talking. And that's what Arnold had going for him: he didn't have to say much (though, I like the added dialogue restored in the director's cut) – and he was strangely charismatic while he did it. All that's really necessary is to "look" the part, and communicate ferocity, strength, and cunning through facial expressions and body language. It's the same stupid bullshit where they cast Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut and then padded him with the worst looking muscle prosthetics ever when they should have just cast some colossal behemoth of steroid-infused muscle. Because anyone could delivered those same two or three lines of dialogue, and probably done a better job of it. (Not that casting was the ultimate failing of that shitfest.) Anyway…yeah, fuck whoever approved this turd.
Conan is not a bodybuilder. He was described as big in the novels, but keep in mind the perception of Conan as a mountain of muscle didn't show up until Frank Frazetta. There were bodybuilders back then
LarryRocha, I don't know what version of the screenplay you've read, but the one I've read (also dated Oct '09) reads like a mishmash of bad Conan fanfiction with bits stolen from dire fantasy films.
Comment #14: if this was a remake of Conan the Barbarian, you might have a point about Conan never talking. However, this isn't a remake, it (purports to be) a new adaptation of the original stories, and Conan talked a hell of a lot more than in CtB.
In any case, if Momoa had another few months to build up muscle he'd be a lot better, but everything about the film has been rushed: the script, the casting, everything. Momoa only had 2 months to work out before shooting began, and though he's still a big dude, he isn't "Conan" big.
looks like a tv show.
@ #14 — Actually, if you had ever read any actual Robert E. Howard Conan stories, you would know that a) Schwarzenegger bears only a superficial resemblance to the literary character, and b) the character as envisioned by Howard is actually extremely vocal and boastful and always has a lot to say. IN fact, it is alluded that he mastered quite a few of the Hyborian languages as well. More by far than just a grunting, scowling muscle man.
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