Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Legend of Conan may yet come to fruition, along with a new Conan the Barbarian TV series. It’s been years since Schwarzenegger graced the big screen as everyone’s favorite barbarian, Conan. Since the release of the lackluster 1984 sequel, Conan the Destroyer, fans have clamoured for the film sequel that was teased at the end of the original Conan movie, showing King Conan sitting on a throne.
Schwarzenegger and the creative team have been teasing the actor’s return to the role for years in the film titled The Legend of Conan. Sadly, just yesterday, one of the project’s screenwriters Chris Morgan revealed that Universal Pictures isn’t making Legend of Conan, as the studio was uninterested in pursuing the property.
However, The Legend of Conan producer and President & CEO of Cabinet Entertainment Fredrik Malmberg has now assured The Arnold Fans that the project’s death isn’t permanent:
We were very excited and spent years working with Chris Morgan to make Legend of Conan. Ultimately, the studio let the rights expire. The positive news is that Conan Properties now controls everything again, and are currently producing both TV and Film with a lot more control than we had previously. Everybody wants The Legend of Conan to happen and it will.
So not only is The Legend of Conan film still in the cards, but a television series is too. Malmberg also revealed that the idea is for the television series to tie into the film, creating more of a cinematic universe rather than separate projects. This isn’t the first time he teased the shared Conan universe idea. He also has no interest in toning down the violence of the television series, saying that:
Sounds like they’re pursuing the same structure a lot of tentpole franchises in Hollywood are pursuing, ever since Marvel Studios proved that a single cohesive universe is a viable story option. The tone of the television series will limit where the show could premiere, however, so they would need to approach something like Starz or a streaming service like Netflix in order to get it up and running.
[It will be] a premium cable show for mature audiences. We are forming a creative hub to coordinate all these various efforts with a cohesive creative direction.
There’s still a lot of work that would need to get done before we see either a film or a television show. New screenplays will need to be written in order to be pitched to a studio and a premium channel. Then it will have to have its budget approved in order to get the greenlight so we’re still years away from watching a new, live-action Conan film or series. Schwarzenegger is currently 69 and even though he’s in great shape, they might not want to wait too long to get the project off the ground.
We’ll bring you more details on The Legend of Conan as they become available.
Source: The Arnold Fans
