By the way, I watched Conan the Barbarian last night and I hate to say it....but I'm not impressed. I really liked the movie's fight scenes, atmosphere and music; but everything else was kind of bland with rushed pacing and a plot and characters that felt to be really shallow. To me it just seemed a dated popcorn flick that isn't worth Bruce's time in starring. I'm honestly fine passing on the mantle of Conan to Arnold and playing Solomon Kane because that seems much more narratively interesting, and the fact that John Milnus is likely to write it like OTL has me concerned that we won't see some of the OG stories depth and Conan's greater personality and character.
Magoose, what is it about Conan that Bruce loves so much?
Yeah, that's the problem and why I want Bruce to star in it instead of Arnold.
They had zero faith in Arnold's ability to speak English when making the movie. He was Austrian, and his accent was even worse when they hired him to play Conan. Some executives basically didn't even want him to talk according to some accounts because his accent was so bad!
So they basically turned Conan from a man of intellect, whose brains matched his brawn and who could match wits with any sorcerer and blades with any warrior, into…Arnold. The guy who barely speaks and punches a camel whilst drunk.
I love the movie. I think it's got a great atmosphere, great action, great designs, great music and the plot is a good basic structure…but Arnold ruins it, with how little he talks, or when he talks he only ever in one scene sounds half intelligent. He reduces Conan to a wordless brute who barely talks, because he wasn't an actor then, he was literally hired simply for his body.
Bruce can bring a similar physicality
and the intellect and wisdom that made Conan truly Conan in the novels. That's why I'm so desperate to have him play Conan.
That and Conan is Bruce's favourite character, so if a movie is being made about Conan, I expect Bruce to want to play him unless someone tries to deter him for some reason.
Edit; To simplify it as much as possible, Arnold's involvement and casting helped turn it from a Conan movie, into an Arnold movie, I'm hoping Bruce can keep it as a Conan movie.
Edit 2: Arnold didn't play Conan. Arnold played the result of the writers trying to write around Arnold so he could play Conan.
