Risky Business Blog are reporting that Conan director Marcus Nispel, Lionsgate and Nu Image/Millennium have found their new Conan star, and he’s a dead ringer for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The 41 year old body builder from Austria (yeah, you read that right), has recently become an actor; he played a T-800 in Terminator Salvation. He’s also played a Conan era Arnie in a biopic entitled “See Arnold Run”. Are these parallels beginning to scare you?
Shooting is set to begin this fall, somewhere in Bulgaria.
Latino Review have got their hands on Brett Ratner’s new Conan movie script, and to prevent pages of reading they have presented it to us in a handy video featurette produced by El Mayimbe. It discusses the opening few scenes in the movie, the main characters and casting opportunities and the film’s potential as a reboot along the lines of 300:
Speaking with MTV, Brett Ratner revealed that he expects the new Conan lead to be an unknown actor with the potential to be iconic:
“I believe it should be an unknown,” Ratner hinted to MTV News. “Conan is kind of iconic. It’s kind of like when you do Superman.”
“Growing up, my favorite comic book was ‘Conan,’” added Ratner. “[It] was the first comic book I ever read.”
However, Ratner is well aware that taking the reins on an all-new “Conan” project is a task worthy of the barbarian himself. After all, the original series of films hold a special place in fanyboy’s hearts, and replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role is darn-near sacrilege. But Ratner, ever the optimist, believes the time is right for “Conan” to pillage the local multiplex once again.
“Look, it’s difficult to fill those shoes,” insisted Ratner, “But they came up with a new Batman, they came up with a new James Bond, you know?”
In November 2008, in a flurry of excitement from Conan producer Avi Lerner it was announced that Brett Ratner would be directing the 2010 Conan remake — the initial statement in the Hollywood Reporter implied that Ratner had committed himself to the sequel, however it seems that Ratner is still in the final phases of negotiation, according to the LA Times, with the screenwriters polishing the script to incorporate new ideas thrown up in the discussion.
Lerner remains positive that Ratner is perfect for the job:
“He has the passion and feeling for this project–he even wrote a story about Conan when he was 10 years old. He understands the character, he analyzed the script really well. He knows how to make this a really big movie. I like his childlike enthusiasm–he almost sees these movies as wonderful toys. What can I say, he’s a nice, likable Jewish boy.”
Ratner’s involvement hinges on “a few obstacles,” namely “a budget, on how to do the special effects and exactly where we’d shoot the film.” — Early thoughts point to a studio in Bulgaria and some exterior work in China.
But when the LA Times contacted Ratner things turned a little sour:
“I am not doing ‘Conan’ now. This is totally premature. For now, ‘Conan’ is only a development deal. I have a deal at Paramount and I’m doing ‘Beverly Hills Cop [4]’ first, no matter what. Avi shouldn’t be telling you or anyone else in the press what I’m doing.”
