Caffeinated Clint
Chris Morgan, one of the producers on Schwazenegger-starring “The Legend of Conan”, offered Empire an update on the long-gestating ‘Barbarian’ follow-up. Seems, while it’s still in the writing stage, it has advanced.
“Andrea Berloff [“Straight Outta Compton”] did a draft, and then we had Will [Beall, “Gangster Squad”] stepped on. I approached him early on in the process, but at the time he was unavailable and couldn’t do it. But then a couple of weeks after he passed on the project I got this package from him in the mail, and I opened it and it was a Conan sword, and on the envelope it said, ‘This you can trust!’ So when he called back a while later said he’d had a slot open up, we slammed him in immediately. He’s just perfect for it; he loves it as much as I do and he has a great voice of Conan. It just makes you happy!”
Morgan says the film will be closer in tone to the original Schwarzenegger/Milius movie than the source material.
“We look at all the source material and we love things that kind of speak to that tone. We’re incredibly respectful to Howard. I’m a huge fan of the stories and books, but I’m a super-huge fan of the first movie, because that crystallised and distilled it all for me. Milius just killed it. He did such a good job. And Legend Of Conan is really resonant and it really digs into the legacy of that original film. I’m already very proud of it.”
“Legend of Conan” was originally slated for a 2014 release – which obviously didn’t happen. So when might we see it?
“Literally right now we’re talking about when it can go ahead. We’re figuring it out. I can’t really say… but it’s sooner than you might think!”
