NEW "KING CONAN" REVIEW & ARNOLD PLEA!TAFs debuts new King Conan script review! Reported By: Randy Jennings Friday, April 4, 2003 I have an important announcement and I want Arnold and The Wachowski Brothers to listen to me very, very carefully. Come closer, closer still, closer... MAKE "KING CONAN" NOW or damn Crom forever!! "King Conan: Crown of Iron" (2nd Draft) Script Review For many years, the staff here at TheArnoldFans, along with a great number of on-line script reviewers, has insisted that the "Crusade" script, owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger, would be (if made) one of the greatest films of cinematic history and the highlight of Arnold's career. Nearly a decade later we find Crusade is still in the "dark" and will probably not be made due to a massive budget and studios and directors not wanting to tackle such sensitive religious themes. Is Arnold now without a script worthy of Oscar consideration? Will a new script EVER be written as powerful as Crusade? A script that brings a tear to your eye after reading it and has you so pumped with anticipation that your fist is raised to the heavens and gods are cursed if they do not help this movie get made?! Cue Basil Poledouris' "Anvil of Crom"! It blasts your ear drum as I am pleased and relieved to share with you all now, that the revised second draft of "King Conan: Crown of Iron" is Arnold's swan song reborn! At last, after John Milius rewrote nearly 80% of the original script, we are left with nothing shy of a potential Academy Award sweeping epic! Only about a week ago, a revised script landed in my lap and thankfully are my family jewels, the new script was lighter than the original 165-page, May 2000 draft. Two years after the original King Conan script, John Milius finished his 2nd draft, trimmed down his long epic from a 3.5 hour movie to a 2 hour (+) time and added a couple of script suggestions by The Wachowski Brothers. The Matrix directors, The Wachowskis, were very interested in producing King Conan, and it was their idea for a great plot addition (goodsized spoiler that will be revealed below). Minor Spoilers: For the most part, the story remains the same from our last script review; Conan raises a son, Kon, but they are separated for over 20 years. During this time Conan is declared king of Zingara and sits on his throne. He grows old, soft and board. His time is spent thinking mainly of his two greatest lost loves: Kon and Valeria. Kon is raised to be a fighting machine, a warrior trained by Alba Metallus Fortunas' legion. 20 years later, after Kon becomes a man and his fighting techniques has equaled his father's, the barbarian son is reunited again under unforeseeable circumstances. Okay, so that much we have learned before. What is new is just about everything else. Although I liked the last King Conan script, I had only given it a questionable approval. It was good but it didn't have me dancing the barbarian shuffle. Today, after this script, I dance, I smile, and I long for King Conan: Crown of Iron! Sit on the ground with me. Let the fire warm you and I will sing of greed, deceit, lust and power. But that is not all. I sing of loyalty, honor and love. You decide what makes men foolish or great! The pace of King Conan is quick and we are no without long drawn-out descriptions of Conan's military techniques of "the Line" and his rise in the ranks. We now are greeted with more bloody battles, Snow Giant fights and women loved everything that makes Conan great. Early on Conan meets Metallus Fortunas and together they lead the Aquilonian armies to countless victories of war. Battle scene descriptions are always fierce! Conan - Cleaving through a wall of Picts with a massive axe. Limbs, blood, bone fly in ecstasy of combat and rage. The Aquilonians take what they wish along the way - including special slaves for their triumphs. Here the barbarian sees an enslaved Wizard. Conan claims his old friend and they are again reunited. Conan is more connected to the people now. He helps the downtrodden and innocent. A death on his watch is his responsibility, he feels, and when one infant boy is orphaned, he takes it as a sign from Crom. Wizard! What have you there? WIZARD A child my Lord. A boy. His mother threw him in the snow. CONAN Where is she? WIZARD Speared my Lord CONAN Then he is mine a child of war and misfortune. Perhaps the first sound he heard was a scream. WIZARD (V.O.) We went east, the boy was named Kon and my lord Conan took him as his son. Your son is with me, with us. With Aquilonia he will be raised, as you never could. Masters of Argos will teach him verse and philosophy. He will be hardened and tempered like this blade-- and sharpened to serve Aquilonia and the cause of civilization. He will be great. Greater than you. Someday he too will be King. In Conan's attempt to be a true good King he tries to unite the Picts (thought to be savages) with his own people and promises the Pictish leader, Mac Morn, peace. Disgusted in this peace treaty, Conan¹s advisors and the Grand Vizier betray the king and arrange many hired thugs to approach Conan in the night in an attempted murder. Now here's where it gets real juicy and the part the Wachowski brothers contribute an idea. John Milius writes in the suggestion. Milius kills off Conan half way through the picture! But fear not, after Conan's brutal death, he is reborn in a scene somewhat reminiscent of his rebirth in 1981's "Conan The Barbarian". Ceremoniously, with the help of many women, Conan is brought back. Crom lets Conan live but only perhaps long enough to set things right. Whether or not Conan fully accomplishes his task in this tale - or if his battle is continued in the following Conan movie I will not say. With the death of the king, Kon is brought to Zingara and rules. Many flashbacks come into play in this draft instead of the typical timeline storytelling. In one of Kon's flashback's we see his harsh upbringings and his childhood adversaries such as Tisus and Felexio, royal A-holes to Kon since childhood. Other villains are soon introduced such as the female Carnifexia (The butcher). I've read one false script review about 6 months ago saying Carnifexia was deleted from the script. The fact is she is back stronger and more ferocious than ever. She will no doubt be Hollywood's most memorable female badass when she rides her chariot and swings her mace in your face! When Conan (now going by the name Herodion to lay-low) recuperates and heels from his death, he works hard, cuts logs and begins to build back his body of his youth. Conan wants to learn more and for the first time in his life, he learns how to make his own swords with the help of his friend and sword maker Venghyan. When the barbarian king is ready for revenge, he sets of for the kingdom and listens to men speak and whisper of the king's murder. Thirsty, Conan stops off at a tavern (one of the biggest scenes left in-tact from the earlier script). Here he meets the tavern keeper, Aeldra, who sends chills to Conan. She is the striking image of Valeria aged 20 years later as well. I thought I would never see you until my death, and then I die, and I saw nothing. I thought Crom would send you wearing a winged helmet, you would reach down and take me from the slain. Perhaps only now I am dying. At last Conan and Kon find each other at the Picts camp across the Black River and tempers flare. Kon strikes his sword against his fathers! Pages and battles later we find Conan and son are ready for war! No longer a personal battle but a war against the Aquilonians and Fortunas. Finally, in this new draft Conan has dialogue worthy for Oscar nomination. Milius does not write words his writes poetry. Conan gives now a fantastic motivational speech and addresses his men to prepare for combat. And what would a Conan war be without first a taste of blasphemy toward Crom! Crom! Again we are here. One thing I know you are watching, you old wolf! The odds are long again, you enjoy that. If I die we will meet in Valhalla, I will eat at your table. And If I live, you will find other ways to torture me. With a battle sequence even more powerful and awesome than any Lord of The Rings: Two Towers battle, Conan shows us what a real fight is! He is actually fighting uphill through piles of slippery, thrashing and mutilated bodies! Go Conan! GO!!!! The Barbarian hero witness Aeldra, fighting and pulling men off horses. Is she Valeria having come back from hell to fight at Conan's side? It's Conan against an army. Aeldra against Carnifexia and Kon is matched against his old school adversary Felexio! I've never read such a battle. For once I question if the famous "Crusade" script has met its match? My only complaint with the new script is one very minor. Michaes, a big powerful black man, Conan's captain of the guards, doesn't do much in batter. You really expect him to have at least one great war scene but his is untimely and disappointing. Give Michaes a better battle and there you have script perfection! I was also happy to see Milius axed the old ending of having Kon fight of a giant whale-sized Ice-worm. In order for Kon to kill it, if I remember right, he had to rip out its horn. And that just reminds us of the horrible ending of Conan the Destroyer. This new ending was so good that it kept me awake half of the night as I cursed Crom to give us this film immediately! Back to the Arnold plea! Arnold, if you are listening, you MUST do King Conan immediately following T3! Push back True Lies 2, West World and your other projects! After T3, you'll be back to being at the very top of the Hollywood mountain. You'll be able to choose any movie you want because the film studios will come rushing to you again. Sign up for King Conan NOW. COMMIT to John Milius and swear it to the fans! If you do, you will forever be idolized as the greatest action hero who ever stepped foot on the Academy Awards stage. You can trade in your sword for an Oscar! This you can trust. ----------  |