Iconic action star Arnold Schwarzenegger shared exciting updates about several projects that would see him reprise some of his most iconic roles earlier this year, including one that was thought to be shelved for good a couple of years back.
The Terminator star spoke to The ArnoldFans.com during Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, and revealed that the elusive King Conan movie we've been hearing about for almost a decade is finally moving forward at 20th Century Studios with none other than Christopher McQuarrie on board to write and direct.
"They just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise’s last four movies. They just hired him to write and direct King Conan. Now, what they do is that they write the part. They don’t write them like I’m forty years old, you write it to be age-appropriate. I’ll still go in there and kick some ass but it will be different.
With King Conan, it's a great old story that Conan was forty years as King and now he gets forced out of the kingdom and there’s conflict, of course, but somehow he comes back and there’s all kinds of madness, violence, magic and creatures and stuff like that. And now, of course, there’s all kinds of special effects. The studio has plenty of money to make those movies really big so I’m looking forward to all of those projects."
The trades would later confirm that the Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer follow-up is moving forward with McQuarrie at the helm.
Now, Schwarzenneger has shared a few more details, revealing that the project is set to begin production in 2027.
“Next year, we are going to do King Conan. So that is a reality now, and I am excited about it. For the last ten years I have been saying, 'we should do King Conan and we should get a great script written, get someone who really understands Rober E. Howard, that understands the artwork of Frank Frazetta and to continue on.' I want to have John Milius, the director of Conan 1, to be maybe the producer. So it will be really fantastic."
"The movie wouldn’t have worked after I did the first Conan because the whole idea of King Conan is that for 40 years he has been king, he is older now," he continued. "He is no longer in the shape he was from his heyday, and now people are trying to take him out. He’s the king, and he gets a little bit complacent. He’s tired of the job, and he wants to move on. Look at the movie by Clint Eastwood, [‘Unforgiven’]. It will be a lot like that, but it will be with extraordinary battles.”
The assumption is that a younger actor will be cast (possibly as Conan's son), so that Schwarzenegger can pass the torch.
Excitement for a potential King Conan film has waned somewhat over the years (some feel that Arnie missed his window), but McQuarrie's involvement seems to have reignited interest.