I'm interested to see what they do with the character. I've read most of Robert E Howards Conan stories. As much as I love Arnie movies, there was definite room for improvement in his take on Conan. Hopefully the full trailer will be up soon.
P.S. Regarding the teaser itself, I read another comment that made me lol "Whats this, a teaser trailer doesn't show you the whole movie in a minute?!"
I was deeply sceptical of the casting when announced (the dude was in Baywatch Hawaii for goodness sake), but the more screenshots and footage that gets released, the more hopefull I am it will be good. At least they are keeping it an R rated movie, not a kid friendly wuss-out for cash.
I love the Arnie movies, he certainly had the physical presence, but his pedestrian sword skills and his lack of agility were a stark contrast with the written character. Momoa is 6'5" and has clearly bulked considerably, but from screenshots so far, they seem to be emphasising the agility and athleticism of the character, which I am fine with, because nobody could look as imposing as Arnie in his prime.
Nope, it will be gay, Arnie has that presence that you just can't replace. Everything afterward sucks. Look at Predator after the first one, just not the same. And while I loved Predators, no one can replace Arnold. Certainly not in Conan. Now then, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkbB-X9654s
I think there is a distinct divide between Conan fans: The first group who know Conan as a literary character from one of the forefathers of fantasy literature, and the second group to whom Conan only exists as a movie character from a couple of 1980's films.
To the former group (in which I include myself) Conan as a character hasn't been properly of fully explored in the medium of cinema.
To the latter group, Arnie is the be all and end all. Regardless of Arnies limitations in his portrayal, he will always be Conan. No one else can fill his loin cloth.
A couple of areas the new Conan movie will find hard to top compared to the original movie are, IMO: the John Milius script (which wove parts of the Conan canon together with an original story) and the outstanding score by Basil Poledouris, which again IMO is amongest the finest scores in the history of cinema.
I agree PW. The 1920's idea of 'heavily muscled' compared to the post 1960 bodybuilding physiques, was vastly different. Someone of Arnie's build was simply beyond the imagination even of Howard. The athleticism and speed described as Conan's primary attributes hint at someone far more in keeping with Momoa's build, which was attainable in pre steroid 20th century physical culture.
The Basil Poledouris musical score from the 1st movie is without a doubt, an all time classic, and will not be beaten anytime soon.
Milius's script however, I took issue with. I didnt like the portrayal of Conan as blind drunk and incapable, nor his lack of guile. And whilst James Earl Jones is always great, I felt taking Set out of Stygia and removing the mystery surrounding the religion, didnt work.
I love Arnie, and all his films, but that does not mean that he is the definitive Conan. It remains to be seen if that title will be taken by Momoa, but I think he stands a good chance of suprising a lot of people this summer.
Jason Momoa is 6'5" - looks like a pretty big lump to me.
These were the best and most famous physiques of REH's era, and would have been reference points in the his mind, and those of his readers, in the descriptions of conan:
Remember that it was not till the 60's that top level bodybuilders began reaching the 20" arm measurement, and in 1952, a lean athletic Sean Connery, not looking much different to hsi early bond movies, was in good enough shape to place at both Mr Scotland, and Mr Universe competitions!
Oh well I saw some different pictures where he was noticeably smaller. And I didn't realize he was so tall, thats' crazy.Still kind of on the small side for the hero of the story but then again he has a more functional build then Arnie. the second link had guys much, much thicker by the way. This is the picture I was thinkign of: http://www.internet-d.com/2010/01/22/jason-momoa-cast-as-conan-the-barbarian/
His build is underwhelming to me. Just doesn't exude power. Of course I haven o knowledge of the original story.
Err... do you mean original stories? Robert E Howard, creator of Conan, wrote a lot of short stories/novellas about Conan. He didn't have one definitive "story" or even something that could by itself by constitute a novel. It was a series of short stories about Conan's adventures. Any of the modern Conan books are a usually just a collection of Robert E Howard stories.
John Milius created a script for the 1982 movie by coming up with an original story that heavily borrowed elements from lots of Conan's stories, such as Queen of the Black Coast.
If you want to read up on Conan I highly recommend getting your hands on the The Complete Chronicles of Conan:
"do you mean original stories? Robert E Howard, creator of Conan, wrote a lot of short stories/novellas about Conan." ^^^^^^^^^ This, sorry for the confusion.
That pic is from when he starred in a show called Stargate:Atlantis. Funnily enough, while he was not as heavily built in that, he did play a kick-ass warrior pretty well in it.
My personal vision of Conan always leans towards Ken Shamrock with long hair http://www.ken-shamrock.com/images/ken-shamrock1.jpg , and back in the day John Milius apparently approached him with this in mind after UFC 2, but nothing came of it.
That pic is from when he starred in a show called Stargate:Atlantis. Funnily enough, while he was not as heavily built in that, he did play a kick-ass warrior pretty well in it.
My personal vision of Conan always leans towards Ken Shamrock with long hair http://www.ken-shamrock.com/images/ken-shamrock1.jpg , and back in the day John Milius apparently approached him with this in mind after UFC 2, but nothing came of it.
Hell yeah Kenny's build would be perfect. Didn't know that picture was for the show, until this I didn't even know who Momoa was.
You guys are completely missing the point. What matters is whether or not Conan will again punch out a camel while somebody has sex with a llama in the background. (And that today two stood against many.)