The 78-year-old has announced a return to the action hero role that made his name in 1982, promising ‘all kinds of madness’
Arnold Schwarzenegger is to return to the role that launched him as a movie star in a belated third instalment of the Conan the Barbarian franchise. The original film, released in 1982 and adapted from pulpy novels by Robert E Howard, saw the then bodybuilder play the chivalric sword-wielder on a quest for revenge against James Earl Jones’ cult leader Thulsa Doom.
Schwarzenegger, 78, whose acting work has slowed since he returned to the profession after his stint as the governor of California, announced at the Arnold sports festival in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend that director Christopher McQuarrie, best known for his work on the Mission: Impossible franchise, would take the reins on King Conan.
“It’s a great story,” he said, where after sitting on the throne for 40 years, “Conan gets complacent, and now he gets forced out of the kingdom, slowly. Then there’s conflict, of course, and then he somehow comes back, and then there’s all kinds of madness and violence and magic and creatures.
“Now, of course, you have all the special effects, and the studio system has plenty of money to make those movies really big.”
