Recently while appearing as a guest at Silicon Valley Comic-Con, legendary actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was seen having a spirited chat with original CONAN THE BARBARIAN director John Milius. After their meeting, the iconic man of action shared a photo of the duo on his personal Instagram account, which as you can imagine, drove Conan fans wild. Funnily enough, Schwarzenegger posted a caption alongside the photo that read "Yes, I talked to him about his King Conan script," as a way of addressing the Conan-related question that would surely follow. However, Schwarzenegger was a tad reluctant to elaborate beyond his initial statement, and gave no further details about the script or the potential of a KING CONAN project heading toward production.
As many of you are likely to know, Milius was the one who gave Schwarzenegger his big break back in the early '80s, when he cast the box office behemoth as the lead character in CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Milius was the talent behind the camera for the 1982 fantasy action vehicle, which was based on a script that he'd co-written with famed filmmaker Oliver Stone. After the success of the first film, Schwarzenegger went on to star in the project's 1984 sequel, CONAN THE DESTROYER, which had been helmed by Richard Fleischer and was based on a screenplay penned by Stanley Mann.
In time, Milius had written a script for a third installment of the Conan series, titled KING CONAN. However, Schwarzenegger had become Governor of California by that time, and as a byproduct of his political position, was unable to participate in the film's development. It was then that KING CONAN was relegated to "film limbo," with little to no movement on what would have surely been an epic endeavor.
Fast-forward to this year, to when we find Schwarzenegger still wanting for the KING CONAN project to come together. Recently, Danny DeVito's twin shared details about the film's script, which would see a 70-year-old Conan lording over his territory as king. While Schwarzenegger says that he and Milius are still in talks about the project, it would seem that rights-holding matters are what's to blame for the holdup. "The only one who really has to pull the trigger there is the people who own the Conan rights to do a movie. Let's go to Netflix or whoever it is, let's hire a director who's very creative and can elevate the project to make it a winning project," Schwarzenegger explained back in March. "I hope it will be done very soon because I think it's a great idea."
As you might recall, an attempt at bringing Conan back into the pop culture zeitgeist was made in 2011 with director Marcus Nispel's CONAN THE BARBARIAN. The fantasy adventure film starred AQUAMAN actor Jason Momoa as the titular character, with stars Stephen Lang, Rachel Nichols, Rose McGowen, and Ron Perlman also joining the muscle-bound mayhem. Unfortunately, the movie was dubbed a complete trash fire, and was universally panned by critics and fans alike. Moreover, the film was such a bomb that it all but killed the idea of updating Conan for contemporary audiences, especially with superhero fever beginning to infect the masses.
While Nispel's film might have put a damper on the wayward warrior's cinematic future, I'm absolutely positive that fans would lose their collective shit for an honest-to-goodness Conan sequel with Schwarzenegger and Milius leading the charge. After all, Schwarzenegger has already demonstrated that he's more than willing to reprise his classic characters as aged-up badasses. If you want evidence of this you need look no further than TERMINATOR: DARK FATE, which has the LAST ACTION HERO alum reprising his T-800 Terminator character.
Personally, I would welcome KING CONAN with open arms. But how about you? Do you think that if Schwarzenegger and Milius can sort the rights-holders conundrum that KING CONAN would be worth a go? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.