Arnold Schwarzenegger To Star In ‘Conan The Barbarian’ Reboot

Arnold Schwarzenegger will be reprising his role as Conan the Barbarian in the series upcoming reboot, Deadline reports.

Universal Pictures has made a deal for The Legend of Conan that would see the action star back in his breakthrough role. Universal released the first film in 1982, and has world rights on the film.

The film will be produced by CEO of Paradox Entertainment Fredrik Malmberg and Universal-based writer and producer Chris Morgan. Morgan’s credits include Wanted, the last four Fast and Furious films, and 47 Ronin. Paradox Entertainment has the rights to the Conan the Barbarian intellectual property.

Universal wants to release The Legend of Conan in the summer of 2014, but Morgan might not be finished writing the seventh film in the Fast and Furious series by then. If he finishes that script in time, he’ll have a chance to write the Conan script.

Schwarzenegger starred in two Conan films before switching over to the Terminator series and other action films. The original 1982 film was a huge success; its sequel, Conan the Destroyer, was only moderately successful in the US, but very successful internationally.

Paradox was involved in the 2011 reboot of the franchise that starred Jason Momoa, who is best known for his role as Ronon Dex in Stargate: Atlantis. The film was meant to be a new interpretation of the Conan myth, and was not related to the two previous movies. It received largely negative reviews, and only made back a little more than half its budget at the box office.

Malmberg told Deadline that the new film would pick up where the original left off, skipping over the sequel and Momoa reboot entirely. There are no plans for him to return to the series. Morgan reiterated, saying everything after the original “looked silly” to him. Morgan said:

“This movie picks up Conan where Arnold is now in his life, and we will be able to use the fact that he has aged in this story. I love the property of Conan so much that I wouldn’t touch it unless we came up with something worthy. We think this is a worthy successor to the original film. Think of this as Conan’s Unforgiven.”

Schwarzenegger is equally as excited to be picking up his sword again. He said:

“I always loved the Conan character and I’m honored to be asked to step into the role once again. I can’t wait to work with Universal and the great team of Fredrik Malmberg and Chris Morgan to develop the next step of this truly epic story.”

What do you think of a(nother) Conan the Barbarian reboot?