Rodriguez (Sin City) Developing Conan?

[Desdichado]

I think the movie is great fun, and I enjoy it immensely. I guess I just keep wanting the Conan movies to feel like a Frazetta painting. But that's probably not going to happen, unless Frank starts writing and directing, and the film medium can somehow convey the feeling you get from looking at a Frazetta masterpiece.

Oddly enough, I just watched the documentary Frazetta: Painting with Fire and John Milius was one of the interviewees (wow, I had no idea the man was such an enormous nerd-looking guy; although he still looks like Brad Pitt next to Ralph Bakshi... ) They actually did try to incorporate as manyFrazetta homages in the movie as they could, to dubious success, IMO.

barsoomboy; I may have to watch the movie again; it's been a long time. I remember thinking that it made me cringe, even as a teenager. Story good? Which story again? Anyway, I'm not one who believes in being a slave to source material, unless your source material is obviously better than the material you have. In this case, I think a more Howard-esque story would have been head and shoulders taller than the story they did have. And Arnold was only chosen to play the part because of his Mr. Universe thing. He later proved that he had some decent performances in him, and he was even convincingly scared and in trouble in Predator, but a Conan lead who can act doesn't seem to be too much to ask for.

 

[Meowzebub]

I would have still liked to have seen Rodriguez direct John Carter of Mars as he was originally slated to do. He lost that gig due to getting kicked out the director's union for giving co-directer status to Frank Miller. Mars would have been a blank slate for him as opposed to reworking someone else's vision and dealing with the inevitable comparisons.

I am not sure if that was also a WB project and they liked the way he was going with it and hoped he could port it over to Conan.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Oddly enough, I just watched the documentary Frazetta: Painting with Fire and John Milius was one of the interviewees (wow, I had no idea the man was such an enormous nerd-looking guy; although he still looks like Brad Pitt next to Ralph Bakshi... ) They actually did try to incorporate as manyFrazetta homages in the movie as they could, to dubious success, IMO.

Actually, I was going to ask about that as I thought I remembered you mentioning that film in another discussion on the boards. I've wanted to see it for a while. I take it it's available on DVD? Did you rent it, or have to buy it? What did you think? Frazetta's one of my all time favorite artists, and I'm curious if the movie is worth a look.

Also, just out of curiosity, do you recall which homages/painting references they tried to make in Conan?

Thanks!

Warrior Poet

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, I was going to ask about that as I thought I remembered you mentioning that film in another discussion on the boards. I've wanted to see it for a while. I take it it's available on DVD? Did you rent it, or have to buy it? What did you think? Frazetta's one of my all time favorite artists, and I'm curious if the movie is worth a look.

I rented it from Netflix. It was a bit of a marathon to get all the way through it; it's about half an hour too long for the type of material it includes. A bit more biography, and a bit more explicit discussion of the effect he had on fantasy art in particular, and book sales, even, would have been interesting. What they did have was interspersed sadly through a great many long, drawn out ramblings of other artists, or old folks that knew him, or shots of him walking around as a very old man with some childhood friends talking about playing baseball or other extremely mundane things.

It would have benefited from a good editor to trim it back a bit.

Also, just out of curiosity, do you recall which homages/painting references they tried to make in Conan?

They showed a shot or two of the movie side by side with a painting. The shots were pretty nondescript and unremarkable. One of the paintings they tried to emulate was "Egyptian Queen" and one was "Rogue Roman."

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Just as an exercise, who would you guys cast as a true-to-REH Conan?

I'll echo Warrior Poet and say an unknown. Also someone muscular, but not built - while Conan's strong in the books, he never really seemed (to me) to have a real Schwarzenegger physique either.

 

[Desdichado]

I'll echo Warrior Poet and say an unknown. Also someone muscular, but not built - while Conan's strong in the books, he never really seemed (to me) to have a real Schwarzenegger physique either.

I dunno... REH was quite clearly a superhuman specimen. I think casting someone built like Arnold was one of the few right choices they made. Note; I said someone built like Arnold, not necessarily Arnold himself...

Besides, Frazetta Conan is built like that too.

 

[S'mon]

I love Conan the Barbarian, it's different from the REH stories but a great work in its own right.

To play a more REHy Conan, hm, Hugh Jackman defnitely sounds good. Preferably not a wrestler.

 

[Swoop109]

Just as an exercise, who would you guys cast as a true-to-REH Conan?

Seems to me that if you wanted to get someone who has shown that they can handle a Sword&Sorcery film, is tall enough, he's 6'4", and has an accent that I belive would match Conan's perfectly, then you need Valdimir Kulich from, The 13th Warrior.


Yes, I know that 13th Warrior is not really a Sword&Sorcery film. But, its damn close.

 

[mmadsen]

Frazetta's one of my all time favorite artists, and I'm curious if the movie is worth a look.

If you're a huge Frazetta fan, Painting with Fire is definitely worth picking up. (I enjoyed it more than JD did.)

 

[Warrior Poet]

I rented it from Netflix. It was a bit of a marathon to get all the way through . . . It would have benefited from a good editor to trim it back a bit.

Thanks for the review. I'd still like to see it, though it sounds somewhat less engaging now.

If you're a huge Frazetta fan . . .

Ah, thanks for the recommendation. Yeah, I still want to see it.

Thanks,

Warrior Poet