‘It’s good to be King…’ Schwarzenegger returns to Conan…

For many years one of the holy grails of action cinema has been little more than rumour and a wish-list headline for die-hard fans. But it appears that 20th Century Studios have heard their lamentations and…. yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to one of the roles that made him famous.

Though 20th Century Studios aren’t commenting in any official capacity, Arnie has said that King Conan is now in active development with the actor /strongman / politician returning to the titular role and Christopher McQuarrie (Mission Impossible) attached to both write and direct.

The almost-official announcement was made at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend.

Many fans have said that Schwarzenegger’s age is not an obstacle and that, in fact, it opens up the story to more possibilities: what does a king and warrior do when he grows older and hopefully wiser?

“With King Conan, it’s a great old story that Conan was forty years as King, and now he gets forced out of the kingdom, and there’s conflict, of course, but somehow he comes back, and there’s all kinds of madness, violence, magic, and creatures and stuff like that,” Schwarzenegger said in the briefest rundown of the expected story.

The character, a warrior from in the fictional Hyborian Age. was created by Robert E. Howard and first appeared on the printed page nearly a century ago. Schwarzenegger played the character to memorable effect in two films: 1982’s Conan the Barbarian and 1984’s Conan the Destroyer. A third film (provisionally entitled Conan the Conquerer was mooted but never happened.

Equally, the 2011 film (with Jason Momoa taking on the role) only made a disappointing $63m at the box-office and squashed the idea of immediately launching a new franchise.