Conan Remake Character Breakdowns Reveal Plot Details
Conan the Barbarian (Remake, 2010) Movie — By Nix on October 29, 2009
Wanna play Conan in Marcus Nispel’s upcoming remake of “Conan the Barbarian”? Well, you should be at least in your 20s to early 30s, Caucasian, powerfully built, broad-shouldered, and with sun browned skin lined with scars. And oh yeah, piercing blue eyes, square-cut black mane, and be taller than average wouldn’t hurt, either. That’s according to a breakdown of all the characters that will be in the movie, which happens to also include plenty of plot details.
In short: after bad guy Khalar Singh kills his father (an old comrade of Singh’s) and slaughters his village (with the help of some nasty mecs), Conan, the last of the Cimmerians, vows vengeance. A now-adult Conan eventually teams up with Tamara, a 20-something badass martial arts beauty who is herself in search of Singh, who has absconded with her queen, Ilira. Ol Singh needs Ilira (currently in disguise) to unleash some dark power that will ensure his dominance.
Here are the character breakdowns for the main cast:
[ CONAN ] He’s in his 20s to early 30s, Caucasian, powerfully built, broad-shouldered, sun browned skin lined with scars. Piercing blue eyes and square-cut black mane, tall. He is a savage killer that has matured into the refinement his father tried to teach him when he was young. Conan is very smart, almost inhumanly strong, and very cunning. His entire life, from the moment of his birth, has been shaped by violence. Being the last of his tribe and having to watch his father die a cruel death, he is determined avenge his peoples slaughter by killing all those who led the attack on the Cimmerians, including the all-powerful Khalar Singh. He is prepared to die in order to accomplish his goal. What Conan did not expect, was to find a reason to live LEAD
[ TAMARA ] She is 18 to 24 years old, Caucasian or Middle Eastern, open to all ethnicities; beautiful, studious, correct, a novitiate of a Greek influenced monastery. A master of martial arts, she has been trained to be the Queen’s servant, bodyguard and best friend. She and many other female bodyguards to the queen have been in hiding most of their lives because of the curse of Acheron, which would take the queen’s life to bring almost immortal power to its king. When Khalar Singh, a powerful warlord with ambitions to become the king of Acheron, storms the monastery and captures all of the novitiates, she is separated from Ilira, the one she must protect. With all of her strength and will, Tamara is determined to find and rescue her. She finds herself in league with Conan because of a mutual need to find Khalar Singh. She is not in the least intimidated by Conan’s size or grim demeanor and their alliance eventually blossoms into something that surprises them both LEAD
[ KHALAR SINGH ] He’s in his 40s to 50s, Asian or Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Mongol, Turkish, or Persian, open to all ethnicities; commanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won. He is driven in his quest to find the Queen of Acheron and has been building an empire to do so. His goal is to find the Queen whose blood will bring life to the demonic minions of Acheron while making himself king of this hellish power. With this power, Khalar will protect his legacy against the onslaught of master sorcerer, Thoth-Amon so that his weak son, Fariq may rule after his death. While riding into a Cimmerian village to recruit his old comrade, Corin, his large collection of mercenaries slaughters them to the last soul when Corin refuses to join them. The village’s only survivor was young Conan. When Khalar’s search has finally narrowed to the likely discovery of the queen at a monastery of female monks, he also learns Conan is older and hungry for revenge LEAD
There are plenty more, including some important supporting characters, in the castlist. They can all be found over at Moviehole.
Back in the day, Conan used to prefer his woman, er, restrained.
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7 Comments
This is just such an iffy project. It’d be like recasting John Rambo, or John McClaine. It’s just impossible for me to see someone else in the role. But I’m not saying I won’t hope for good casting, just that in my eyes, no known or established actor can really be Conan for me right now. At least none that come to mind.
This movie will be the exact same story as the original? Lack of inspiration, I’d say. There’s so many great REH stories to make a movie from…
This movie seems doomed to fail. First, the film is written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. These two screenwriters are widely ridiculed for their lack of creativity. They pen cliche, formulaic scripts with no soul. Worse, Donnelly and Oppenheimer are unfamiliar with Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories and they seemingly know very little about the Hyborian Age. Second, the film is directed by Marcus Nispel, a B-grade director. His best film is “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003) and that film is rated at a miserable 6.1 on IMDB.com. Nispel was hired to replace Brett Ratner, another terrible director. Ratner disliked the script. You know a screenplay must be very bad when Ratner turns it down. Third, the film ignores Robert E. Howard’s classic stories and neuters the character. Instead of faithfully adapting Howard’s famous Cimmerian, Hollywood is once again butchering the literary material in order to create a mindless action-movie. In summary, poor screenwriters coupled with a poor director means a poor movie. They might as well replace Nispel with Uwe Boll and hire Ehren Kruger to butcher it even more.
What a stupid idea this is.
Why not remake something with a great story that sucked in the theater instead of tarnishing a legendary movie like Conan the Barbarian.
I wonder what the 2030 of 300 will be like.
Not a bad idea at all. I don’t count it as a remake as it’s based on a series of books. So like “A Christmas Carol,” “Beowulf,” “King Arthur” and other long standing literature to film franchises I think a new version could be done well. First of all if this dude Roland Kickinger can act at ll he should definitely play Conan, as he already stood in as Arnie’s double in “Terminator Salvation.” Second, Dolph Lundgren joining the cast would be awesome and he’d be a perfect fit as Kahlar Singh. Also throw Ralph Moeler in as a henchman (he played Conan in the TV series) and it’d be awesome. Take a story that hasn’t been adapted yet as your base (there are quite a few) and we could get the next kick-ass sword and sorcery flick. Until then I’m waiting on “Clash of the Titans.”
1. Stop the current production.
2. Get an REH expert in the same room with the scriptwriters. Have them read the books and instruct them that the Conan stories will serve as the building blocks for the movie, and nothing else.
3. Use this film as a chance to reinvent the pop cultural idea of Conan.
Look at Casino Royale. Batman Begins. Pirates of the Carribean. All of these films took dead characters, dead franchises, and dead genres and reinvigorated them by not playing it safe. Even fans of Conan the Barbarian don’t want a rehash of that. We are twenty years older now, and we need something more sophisticated. Bryan Singer learned that the hard way with Superman Returns. This can NOT be a nostalgia project.
Visit http://www.amrathelion.com/index.php/Nemedian-Chronicles/An-Appeal-To-Paradox.html for more information.
YES YES YES!!!! Right on!