One project we continue to hear rumblings about online is The Legend of Conan, a direct sequel to 1984’s Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger once again playing the character, though in the twilight of his years. Last we heard, writer Andrea Berloff had been hired to pen the script for the film, but now, in an interview with The Arnold Fans, producer Fredrik Malmberg says a script polish will be delivered shortly and they’re hoping to start production in Spring 2015.
“We’ll probably have this turned in around September after the holiday,” Malmberg said. “And then we’ll take it to the studio and if they’re happy, we can hopefully start (production) in the Spring (2015).”
Malmberg went on to say that though they hadn’t chosen a director for the project just yet, a number of candidates have come forward expressing interest, ranging from “old great names” to “new fresh faces,” as he puts it. He also revealed that they would like for The Legend of Conan to be Schwarzenegger’s next film following the upcoming Terminator reboot.
“Arnold wants that. I would like that and I know everyone from the studio side would like that but it’s all in the script. We need to get the script where it’s right and ready to go. In the movie world, nowadays, when a movie is a go movie, it happens very quickly. It’s up to Universal to set the date for it to be released but personally, I don’t think it has to be a summer movie. I think there’s plenty of examples of big event movies being released in the winter like the Matrix movies and The Lord of the Rings. I can see this being a winter movie as well as a summer movie. This iconic role of Arnold as Conan is so big that it can be year round.”
Universal Pictures were previously aiming for a 2014 release for the film, though we would expect the film to land in theaters in 2016 at the earliest.