The Legend of Conan and Ninja Turtles are both set to shoot in 2013!

I’ll be blunt right up front here and say that I’m much more excited for one of these projects than the other.  Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of all things Conan and few things Ninja Turtle, but… no, that’s really all there is to it. But, as they say, a movie isn’t truly greenlit until the cameras roll on the first day of Principal Photography.

And going by that snippet of wisdom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans may be dancing on old King Conan’s grave by this year’s end as NINJA TURTLES is set to lens first this coming April in NYC. 

That would be bringing such a CGI-heavy production dangerously close (post-production labor considered) to the movie’s release date of May 16th, 2014, but if executive producer Michael Bay has faith then I guess that’s what’s going to happen.  Little else is currently known about NINJA TURTLES beyond the facts that it will be directed by Jonathan Liebesman and come with Ninja Turtles of what is very obviously an alien origin. 

Stay tuned for more details as we draw closer to the start of production!

Meanwhile, in THE LEGEND OF CONAN news, here’s a transcript of Arnold Schwarzenegger himself explaining how the movie even came to be and the plan for where they’ve going to take his character:

“[Universal] finally came forward… and said, ‘You’re absolutely right. The previous regime has missed the boat here. We want to pick it up. We’re going to buy the rights and we’re going to be serious about it and make a quality film with an A-director and with A-writers and so on. And we want you to participate in this. We want you to star and you to play Conan. We’re going to take a story where Conan is at that age so it’s totally believable and you’re not looking like a 30-year old action guy.”

And here’s producer Frederik Malmberg in the project’s original announcement:  “The original ended with Arnold on the throne as a seasoned warrior, and this is the take of the film we will make.   It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle.”

And here’s the original video from which the above information was taken, in which Schwarzenegger himself also reveals that principal photography may take place in New Zealand and commence as early as the end of this year.  Which, if it comes to pass, would mean we might see Conan back in cinemas by the summer of 2015. 

Arnold nostalgia aside, purely from a character/story/world standpoint, for which of these productions are you more excited?