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Post by MOK on Mar 29, 2020 17:19:26 GMT
Point taken. The film has its merits, but the character is a far cry from Howard's creation. Still, that's what happens with adaptation. Howard's pulp stories were published as a serial, then they were rebranded as novels with Frank Frazetta cover art, and then a couple new authors continued the work, then Marvel picked it up and ran with it for two decades, and by the time Ed Pressman at Universal got to it, Howard's creation had evolved into something else: a star making vehicle for a bodybuilder. It's a crazy movie and I love it, but not for it's resemblance to Howard's work. Oh, yeah. Honestly, a proper Conan adaptation would be very much like a Spaghetti Western with swords instead of six-shooters. Have The Good, the Bad and the Ugly take place during an Aquilonian peasant revolt under King Numedides and BAM! Perfection. CtD was, as you note, kinda halfway there, just a shame about the other half...
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seth
Member
Just Peachy
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Post by seth on Mar 29, 2020 17:56:37 GMT
It was hated by a lot of people but I liked Conan of Venarium by Harry Turtledove. It wasn't an overly dramatic origin story and showed how Conan ended up wandering south into legend.
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Post by paulmuaddib on Mar 30, 2020 21:28:54 GMT
Leb, I think I might have an interesting take on it. Back in the day science fiction movies were not thought very well of by cinema standards. Cheap quality, special effects, etc. One genre that was thought less of was what was called ‘sword and sandal’ movies. And for good reason, they were mostly shot in Italy, with very low budgets. Literally ‘Spaghetti barbarian’ movies, but of lesser quality than the westerns for the most part.
Along comes Star Wars and all of a sudden sci-fi was the coolest kid on the block. The market was flooded with sci-fi movies, tv shows all trying to catch up with the demand for the genre.
Now imho, Conan did for sword and sandal (or sorcery) movies what Star Wars did for sci-fi. After it they got better budgets, special effects and so on. Not that that genre ever came close to sci-fi or Star Wars until Game of Thrones.
Just my thoughts on it that I haven’t really seen anywhere else. And it is very cool that James Earl Jones was involved in both. Not sure I’d give him credit for the success of either genre but it sure as hell didn’t hurt to have such a respected actor in them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2020 21:56:14 GMT
Thanks, Paul. I do intend to discuss sword and sandal as both a literary and cinematic genre. Conan could also be classified as an ancient world picture. It was also designed to be like a serial, but it never panned out properly. I definitely agree that it led to a serious revival of the genre, that's for sure. It probably paved the way in some small measure for superhero genre films, too.
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Post by paulmuaddib on Mar 30, 2020 22:25:53 GMT
Thanks, Paul. I do intend to discuss sword and sandal as both a literary and cinematic genre. Conan could also be classified as an ancient world picture. It was also designed to be like a serial, but it never panned out properly. I definitely agree that it led to a serious revival of the genre, that's for sure. It probably paved the way in some small measure for superhero genre films, too. Definitely agree wit that take on the super hero movies. As with my points above SW and Conan opened up a whole new thought pattern in Hollywood. Comic books were just something that kids read and definitely were not well thought of in the literary world. But then all those kids grew up, had money to spend and wanted to see what they had read and visualized. And of course we have to go back to Star Wars again for developing the special effects. When Spider-Man (Tobin Maguire version) came out I thought the special effects had finally gotten to where they could do justice to comics. Anyway, just thought it interesting how those two movies came out so soon to each other and, again imho, changed cinema for those two genres and others. Good luck with your podcast. Let us know what it’s called so we can listen to it when it comes out.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2020 21:43:51 GMT
So, I just finished the rough cut of my podcast pilot, with Conan The Barbarian as my first topic. It's 50 minutes long. If anyone feels particularly inclined to listen, let me know and I can send it to you.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2020 23:46:07 GMT
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Apr 7, 2020 12:19:18 GMT
You know...Conan could take Zorro's place... Conan the Gay Blade anyone? Edit: You know...thinking about this, Conan as the Lone Ranger...who would be his Tonto? Subotai? Or as the Cisco Kid... Let alone imagine the awesomeness of swapping Conan into the 'They Call me Trinity'
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Post by Dandelion on Apr 7, 2020 14:15:46 GMT
Ahh... a new, a true-to-book Conan movie... yes, that would be something cool! But who to play him? Absolutely no idea; Momoa was more like it, but that "movie" - ugh. We would need something lie a young Ciaran Hinds - with blue eyes and some muscles! Attachments:
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2020 21:42:43 GMT
You instantly sold me on Ciaran Hinds.
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