Conan - Part 1

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Heard that they were doing a new movie. It is suppose to be closer to the books, anyone know whats going on with this, not seeing much on it anywhere. I did see a teaser poster on the main page though
 
rewriting the script while filming the movie? At least 35% and close to 50% of the script was rewritten during filming?

Not a good sign.
 
I don't know it maybe that the re-writes could make it a better movie, and almost all movie do this. My understanding is that the re-writes bring the characters closer to the books meant them to be.
 
Yeah, re-writing on set isn't always a bad thing, esp if the script was not that great in the first place, worry automatically when they had a good script and are re-writing.
One of the producers of the movie was on the boards of conan.com the other day saying that they have brought the character and world closer to the REH stories, and that they don't think there is any problem with reconciling the character's new revenge driven origin with the REH character, or adapting any of his stories for later films.
He would say all that of course, but I don't know, he seemed genuine when I was reading his posts, and they do have plans on a straight adaptation of the REH storeis for the sequel.
He did tackle the question of why they did the revenge driven origin head on, no bs, saying they felt they had to bring a quality to the character that audiences could latch onto, instead of him just being a thief who was out for money, although they are keeping all those qualities too.

edit: It was actually the guy who was re-writing the script, this is what he was saying over at conan.com on this link:

http://www.conan.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=7098&st=4500

I DO think that Howard stories can be adapted directly for the screen, and I hope that future Conan films will take this approach. I think that a film might have to combine elements from more than one story. For example, The Frost-Giant's Daughter" would make a fantastic cinematic sequence or opening, but it wouldn't be enough for an entire movie.

I compared Howard stories to LOR and Harry Potter (and my thoughts were mostly aimed at other screenwriters) just to suggest that a Conan adaptation is a different kind of problem. I would agree that since the Conan stories are disconnected, it's possible to add new characters and adventures that can fit into Howard's world.

I read over and over that the "revenge" storyline is incompatible with the Howard cannon. I'm not going to argue that, because I'm not going to change anyone's mind (and it wasn't my decision to make anyway,) but I do think that future films can be adapted more directly from Howard without this "origin story" being a contradiction.

My point about dialogue and Howard being language-driven was meant to underscore the difficulty of adapting certain books for the screen. Cinema is a visual medium, and the new Conan The Barbarian has a lot of action and visual storytelling. The long speeches, histories and stories in Howard's dialogue wouldn't play well in a movie. A few pages could take up 10 minutes of an 100 minute movie. Again, I'm used to blogging for screenwriters and filmmakers, not fans, so perhaps my concerns fall upon deaf ears.

A screenwriter might have the same problem adapting Raymond Chandler. A lot of the storytelling in his novels is done via dialogue, in which characters give long accounts, explanations and descriptions of events. This "dialogue" goes on for pages and pages. The rule of cinema is "show it, don't say it" so in adapting Chandler, one would have to figure out ways of showing things visually and dramatically rather than have a long scene in which a character explains the story with words.

This doesn't mean that the spirit of the "hard boiled" dialogue can't be reproduced, and snippets of Chandler's language used in the dialogue. The same is true for the spirit of the dialogue in REH stories.

Lastly, I am not trying to apologize for the film, or justify the decisions made by the people (myself included) who worked on it. I tried to give a honest interview about my experiences and impressions working on the movie.

Fans can decide whether or not the film succeeds in honoring Howard's stories, and moviegoers in general will decide if the film is any good, but cynics should know that there were a lot of very honest, serious and talented people who worked very hard to make an authentic Conan film. Say what you like about the movie when it comes out, but I'm no PR stooge. I gain nothing by lying or covering or equivocating on behalf of the movie... because ultimately the shooting script that I wrote (and the movie) will speak for itself.

Anyway, as a book lover, I admire the way fans of Conan discuss and debate the stories in forums such as this one, and I honestly believe that more people will read the Howard books because of this film.

[...]

Also... just to be clear. The film DOES try to stay true to the character of Conan, an amoral thief and slayer for whom no problem can't be solved by the cold edge of steel.

The issue is how to introduce these kind of characters to wide audience. Amoral characters like Rooster Cogburn in True Grit... all the way back to Philip Marlowe in the Big Sleep... all have some redeeming features revealed by the story that allow the audience to empathize with them.

Rooster Cogburn may be a scoundrel, but his quest to help and defend a 14-year-old girl is one a wide audience can get behind.

In order to stay true to the Conan character, a framework was needed to so that the audience could get behind all his ruthless hacking and slashing. Again, many here may feel we chose the wrong frame (a revenge plot) but the goal was to introduce a grim, complex, amoral character to a wide audience.
Click to expand...

and he was responding to discussion on this recent interview he gave(which is what I guess shon was referring to, as he gives out the same rough percenteges of what was re-written):

http://ramascreen.com/exclusive-interview-screenwriter-sean-hood-talks-about-conan-the-barbarian/
 
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Making Conan closer to the books isn't necessarily a good thing. From what I read of Howard's work, Conan was pretty simple and one dimensional. His typical objective in every story was basically how many things he could hack and slash to death in the shortest amount of time.
 
zanos said:
Making Conan closer to the books isn't necessarily a good thing. From what I read of Howard's work, Conan was pretty simple and one dimensional. His typical objective in every story was basically how many things he could hack and slash to death in the shortest amount of time.
Click to expand...

And that's......bad.
 
I have only read the Savage Sword adaptations of the REH stories, but in many of those tales he sets out to rob such and such, and will encounter folk in distress, and help them out. He is not just a 'bad' guy, just as he is not just a fighter, he has to use his brains to get himself out of many scapes.
He's not just a thief, in the stories he's also been a general of armies, a pirate captain, and just a guy out looking for a good time, yeah, the stories are just simple adventure tales in various settings, but what is thrilling about them is Conan's never say die attitude, and going along with the ride as you wonder how he is going to extract himself from seemingly impossible situations. It's just the same as Indiana Jones, he is going after such and such for the museum, or to help out a tribe, and Conan is going after wotsits and whatnots to keep himself employed in a barbaric land without jobcentres or foodstamps.
We are on a superhero site, lots of the tales told in these movies are simple, but that does not mean they are stupid or boring, keeping it simple is probably a plus point, look at the Ang Lee Hulk movie for an abject lesson in 'how not to', they overcomplicated the Jekyll/Hyde tale to it's detriment.
 
Thebumwhowalks said:
We are on a superhero site, lots of the tales told in these movies are simple, but that does not mean they are stupid or boring, keeping it simple is probably a plus point, look at the Ang Lee Hulk movie for an abject lesson in 'how not to', they overcomplicated the Jekyll/Hyde tale to it's detriment.
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This.:up:
 
zanos said:
Making Conan closer to the books isn't necessarily a good thing. From what I read of Howard's work, Conan was pretty simple and one dimensional. His typical objective in every story was basically how many things he could hack and slash to death in the shortest amount of time.
Click to expand...

well, then make no movie out of it. Simple as that. :yay:
 
New image of Conan on new Empire issue cover:
http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=74789&offset=20#commentLstTop


tf-empire-01-1.jpg
 
I don't like how they have new Arnie below his pic though.
 
I would love to see a full scan of that page.

On a side note, this weekend at the bookstore in the bargain books section I picked up a book titled Robert E Howard's Conan The Barbarian Complete and Unabridged. Grabbed it off the shelf without really investigating because I already had a sizable haul. Got it home and found that it's missing quite a few stories in there. Can't complain though, it's my fault for not flipping through the book, but it was cheap so I'm keeping it. It's not like I don't already have the stories from the previous 3 volume release.

So a word to the wise, avoid this book - http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Barbarian-Original-Unabridged-Adventures/dp/1853756997

These are the worthy ones, the 3 volume set - http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Crown-Conan-Cimmeria-Book/dp/0345461525/ref=bxgy_cc_b_text_b http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Sword-Conan-Cimmeria-Book/dp/0345461533/ref=bxgy_cc_b_text_a

And of course - http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Chronicles-Conan-Robert-Howard/dp/0575077662

Doesn't really bother me though, I'm a literary completest. If you ever checked out my James Bond [Flemming and subsequent authors], Ayn Rand, John Lecarre, Tom Clancy, etc collections it's pretty clear I don't mind.
 
This movie sounds amazing because
A) It's sexist
B) It's brutal
C) It has Jason Momoa
 
This actually looks kinda promising. As a huge Robert E. Howard fan, it would be a really nice surprise to get a faithful adaptation. I just wish they were doing some of the old stories, like Elephant in the Tower etc.
 
Wolvieboy17 said:
This actually looks kinda promising. As a huge Robert E. Howard fan, it would be a really nice surprise to get a faithful adaptation. I just wish they were doing some of the old stories, like Elephant in the Tower etc.
Click to expand...

I believe that the sequel for this film, which has already been greenlighted, is based more specifically on a particular Howard story. I believe the script for it was done by the guys who wrote the film "Outlander".
 
Hmmm that could be cool. I wonder which tales... Perhaps it's when he goes to Zamora and encounters thieves and civilised men for the first time :P
 
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