The star of ‘Conan the Barbarian’ recently answered questions from blog writers and readers in a video created by Lionsgate UK. In sci-fi circles, Jason Momoa is well-known for his roles in ‘Stargate: Atlantis’ and ‘Game of Thrones.’ One of the questions asks how Marcus Nispel — director of the new Conan film — described his vision of the film to Momoa. His reply was that Nispel told him he wanted Conan to be like Sean Connery as Bond, “…just very charismatic and you fall in love with him.”
I wouldn’t exactly call Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the 1982 Conan film charismatic . His fighting skills were what attracted people to him much more than his personality. Momoa played the role of Khal Drogo in ‘Game of Thrones.’ As the leader of a band of primitive horse riders, Momoa acted with more charisma than one might expect, though he was given only a few speaking lines per scene.
When asked if there will be references to anything from the Conan comics in the movie, or only to the original Robert E. Howard stories, Momoa had this to say: “The wardrobe in this is really pulled from the Dark Horse comics. Obviously, this poster looks like the Frank Frazetta painting. Some of the comics do the Robert E. Howard stories, some are their own. We pull from a little bit of everything.”
If the new Conan movie can successfully combine the look of the comics with the feel of Frank Frazetta’s work — one of the best fantasy artists in history — the film will at least be a huge visual success. I hope the script is good enough to add the substance necessary to qualify the film as an epic fantasy as opposed to a forgettable one. ‘Conan the Barbarian’ will be in theaters on August 19 in the U.S. and August 24 in the UK.You can view the Q & A video here:
