Conan the Barbarian: The Official Story of the Film

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Conan The Barbarian The Official Story of the Film
Conan Book Cover John Walsh3.jpg
Author John Walsh
LanguageEnglish
Genre Fantasy film
Publisher Titan Books
Publication date
August 8, 2023 [1] [2]
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages176 (First edition, hardcover)
ISBN 9781803361765 (First edition, hardcover)

Conan The Barbarian: The Official Story of the Film is the sixth book by John Walsh published August 8, 2023. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the 1982 film Conan The Barbarian , directed by John Milius and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This large format coffee table-style book tells the story of how the original stories based on the Robert E. Howard series were adapted for cinema audiences.

Contents

Overview

The Hollywood Reporter first announced the book on June 21, 2022, as part of a wider rights deal with Conan rights holder for reissues of comic books and novels based on the character by Robert E Howard with British publisher Titan Books. [3]

Starburst Magazine discussed the materials found, including

artwork from the legendary Frank Frazetta is presented beautifully in full-page reproductions that show how the character was envisaged for the sixties book covers. Other stunning illustrations come from production designer Ron Cobb’s paintings and illustrations that helped the film look so distinctive. Likewise, all aspects of the film’s creation – and those that made the magic come alive – are covered with some rare reproductions of sketches and the like. [4]

Empire Magazine summarises the book's account of what could have been made with the film’s original director.

The first attempt to bring the character to screen came in the late 1970s, when Oliver Stone first wrote a screenplay. Little of that script, written in a "drug-fever dream", actually made it to the screen, but in Walsh's telling, it sounds wild: Stone conceived of Conan battling a Dante's Inferno-esque army of 20,000 pig mutants, insect demons, "hyena heads", and more. His version would have cost $100 million - an unthinkable budget at the time.” [5]

The Spanish language review site Negativa mentions the European locations uncovered by the book.

John Walsh's book, as expected, comes to us full of information about the filming of the film, whose production was moved to Spain after a failed attempt to film in Yugoslavia, but he does very well in starting by putting the character in context. [6]

Borg.com noted the book includes interviews with Schwarzenegger, Stone, Milius, and Raffaella De Laurentiis. [7]

Blazing Minds commented on the book’s physical design: “The dust cover looks amazing with its art, and underneath that is a faux leather look cover brandishing a shiny silver sword.” [8]

SciFi Bulletin discussed the book’s chapter on the original unmade film planned by Oliver Stone. “We learn about the years taken to develop the movie at one stage Oliver Stone wrote an ‘unfilmable’ drug-fuelled script.” [9]

Horror Cult Film focussed on the part traditional visual effects played in the film’s production.

But we also get a lot that very few will have seen; the “old school” special effects lover in me really loved pictures showing the combining of models and matte paintings, some of which I’d never realised were actually models and matte paintings because they were so good. [10]

SciFi Pulse looked at the impracticalities of Oliver Stone's original screenplay.

“Stone’s screenplay was never viewed as filmable as it was very much ahead of its time with Orcs and many of the fantasy staples that moviegoers would not get to see until the 2000s in The Lord of The Rings trilogy.” [11]

Forces of Geek said the book gives "fascinating insights into the development of one of the best-loved fantasy films of the 1980s.” [12]


Related Research Articles

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Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games. Robert E. Howard created the character in 1932 for a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.

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Red Sonja is a fictional sword and sorcery comic-book superheroine created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially inspired by Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Milius</span> American filmmaker (born 1944)

John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He was a writer for the first two Dirty Harry films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of Apocalypse Now (1979), and wrote and directed The Wind and the Lion (1975), Conan the Barbarian (1982), and Red Dawn (1984). He later served as the co-creator of the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series Rome (2005–2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Windsor-Smith</span> British graphic novelist (born 1949)

Barry Windsor-Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best-known work has been produced in the United States. He attained note working on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his work on the character Wolverine, particularly the 1991 "Weapon X" story arc. His other noted Marvel work included a 1984 "Thing" story in Marvel Fanfare, the "Lifedeath" and "Lifedeath II" stories with writer Chris Claremont that focused on the de-powered Storm in The Uncanny X-Men, as well as the 1984 Machine Man limited series with Herb Trimpe and Tom DeFalco.

<i>Conan the Destroyer</i> 1984 film by Richard Fleischer

Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American epic sword and sorcery film directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Stanley Mann and a story by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. Based on the character Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard, it is the sequel to Conan the Barbarian (1982). The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako reprising their roles as Conan and Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter, and Olivia d'Abo.

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<i>The Wind and the Lion</i> 1975 film written and directed by John Milius

The Wind and the Lion is a 1975 American epic historical adventure film written and directed by John Milius, and starring Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, and John Huston. The film is loosely based on the real-life Perdicaris affair of 1904. Connery plays Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli, a Moroccan Berber rebel and anti-imperialist leader, and Bergen plays his hostage Eden Perdicaris, a fictional character inspired by Ion Hanford Perdicaris.

<i>Kull the Conqueror</i> 1997 film by John Nicolella

Kull the Conqueror is a 1997 fantasy film about the Robert E. Howard character Kull starring Kevin Sorbo and directed by John Nicolella. It is a film adaptation of Howard's Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon, with the protagonist changed to the author's other barbarian hero Kull. The storyline also bears similarities to two other Howard stories, the Kull story "By This Axe I Rule!" and the Conan story "The Phoenix on the Sword", which was a rewritten version of "By This Axe I Rule!"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Frost-Giant's Daughter</span> Conan short story by Robert E. Howard

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Fire and Ice is a 1983 American animated dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, a collaboration between Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. The animated feature, based on characters co-created by Bakshi and Frazetta, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live-action and then traced onto animation cels.

James Danforth is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years B.C. (1967). He later went on to work with Ray Harryhausen on the film Clash of the Titans (1981) to mainly do the animation of the winged horse Pegasus.

<i>Conan the Barbarian</i> (1982 film) 1982 American fantasy movie

Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 American epic sword and sorcery film directed by John Milius and written by Milius and Oliver Stone. Based on Robert E. Howard's Conan, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones, and tells the story of a barbarian warrior named Conan (Schwarzenegger) who seeks vengeance for the death of his parents at the hands of Thulsa Doom (Jones), the leader of a snake cult.

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<i>Conan</i> (2007 video game) 2007 action-adventure game

Conan is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Nihilistic Software and published by THQ for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Players take control of the titular hero, Conan the Barbarian, from Robert E. Howard's fantasy literature.

<i>Conan the Barbarian</i> (2011 film) 2011 film by Marcus Nispel

Conan the Barbarian is a 2011 American sword and sorcery film based on the character of the same name created by Robert E. Howard. The film is a new interpretation of the Conan myth and is not related to the films featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It stars Jason Momoa in the title role, alongside Rachel Nichols, Rose McGowan, Stephen Lang, Ron Perlman, and Bob Sapp, with Marcus Nispel directing. Morgan Freeman narrates the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adaptations of works by Robert E. Howard</span>

The works of Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) have been adapted into multiple media, the most famous being the Conan films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition to the Conan films, other adaptations have included Kull the Conqueror (1997) and Solomon Kane (2009). In television, the anthology series Thriller (1961) led the adaptations with an episode based on the short story "Pigeons from Hell." The bulk of the adaptations have, however, been based on Conan with two animated and one live action series. Multiple audio dramas have been adapted, from professional audio books and plays to LibriVox recordings of works in the public domain. Computer games have focussed on Conan, beginning with Conan: Hall of Volta (1984) and continuing on to the MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (2008). The first table-top roleplaying game based on Howard's works was TSR's "Conan Unchained!" (1984) for their game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The first comic book adaptation was in the Mexican Cuentos de abuelito - La reina de la Costa Negra #8 (1952). Howard-related comic books continued to be published to the present day. Howard is an ongoing inspiration for and influence on heavy metal music. Several bands have adapted Howard's works to tracks or entire albums. The British metal band Bal-Sagoth is named after Howard's story "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Witch Shall be Born</span> Conan novella by Robert E. Howard

"A Witch Shall Be Born" is one of the original sword and sorcery novellas by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in December 1934. A book edition was published in 1975 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher with illustrations by Alicia Austin.

References