2011's
Conan the Barbarian opened with a thud, only pulling in $16.6 million domestically in it's first
ten days, and a paltry $5.5 million opening weekend overseas. The Lionsgate film cost around $70 million to produce and finished a few million shy of $50 million at the worldwide box office when it's run came to an end. The film was also panned by fans of Robert E. Howard's novels and Arnold Schwarzenegger's previous two Conan films. Critics were unkind to the film as well, it only garnered a 23% aggregate approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Who is to blame? Well, many will point their fingers at the screenwriters, but which one or two is deserves the scolding when their are four credited to the film? Screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, Andrew Lobel, and Sean Hood all made contributions to the script.
Perhaps this is why we haven't heard anything about Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer's script for
Doctor Strange, which they turned over to Marvel about a year ago.
Q:
Your take on “Conan” nailed the savagery and made him the best take on the character. How did you feel about the rest of the film living up to your performance?
Momoa: I was a comic book fan and a huge admirer of Frank Frazetta and when he died during our filming, it was so sad because I wanted him to see it and say “Wow, that’s my Conan!” Just looking at his paintings, I wanted to put that up on the screen. I absolutely remember seeing that one where Conan's standing on a pile of skulls and it’s seared into your memory and a I felt like Marcus Nispel is a pretty visually amazing director. There’s just a lot of things that came into it and sometimes the script just wasn’t there. I just wanted take a stab at doing Conan and it’s out of your control, you can only do so much I feel like I bled over, and over and over to do the best I could. I feel like we represented him very well. The movie sometimes, it fell short you can only show up as an actor and be the best you can be.
Q:
So you’re just finishing up “Bullet to the Head” with Walter Hill. We’ve only heard little snippets about it but can you tell us about that?
Momoa: That was an honor, it was just amazing and I mean Stallone is just a legend. It was a dream to work with him and my fight scenes with Stallone, it was like you just stop and pinch yourself and say “I can’t believe I’m fighting Rocky right now!” I watched “Rocky” when I was getting ready for Conan. It was fun and I got to play a ‘Don’ for the first time. I’m excited for people to see it.
Bullet to the Head was directed by Walter Hill based upon Alexis Nolent's French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete. The film will star Sylvester Stallone, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sarah Shahi, Jason Momoa, Sung Kang, and Christian Slater. It hits theaters February 1st, 2013.