A new report details that the live-action Conan the Barbarian series is no longer happening at Netflix, but a possible film might be in the works.
This new report comes after comments made by Arnold Schwarzenegger to The Hollywood Reporter where he said that Netflix didn’t know anything about a live-action Conan series.
Specifically, Schwarzenegger told the outlet, “It’s been pending for the last 10 years. [Fredrik] Malmberg owns the rights. He comes to me and says, ‘Oh, I have a deal with Netflix,’ and when we ask Netflix, they don’t know anything about it. It’s one of those crazy things. I hope he figures it out.”
He added, “I think you do it like Unforgiven, where you play the age. There’s a great script out there that John Milius wrote, and others have written one. The story is there. There are directors who want to do it. But he has the rights, and until he sells the rights for one or two movies, or for the franchise, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Reacting to Schwarzenegger’s comments, Heroic Signatures President Fredrik Malmberg wrote on Twitter, “Great article! We spent three years with Netflix and talked to them about Arnold several times. We are now working with a major filmmaker who is great and a true Conan fan. Will share more when I can by Crom!”
Andre Einherjar of Midnight’s Edge would also reach out to Malmberg to clarify the status of the live-action series on Netflix.
Malmberg informed him that Conan was no longer at Netflix saying, “Yes. We worked and talked and spent good time but ultimately it didn’t come to fruition. That’s Hollywood. Onwards and upwards.”
Einherjar also said he asked Malmberg if he was working with someone else. Einherjar didn’t provide how Malmberg replied to this inquiry, but he did say, “He did not give me a straight answer, but his use of emojis suggest to me that, yes, there is someone else in the wings. Though that someone else has not been announced.”
As for what went wrong with the deal at Netflix, Einherjar said, “He didn’t offer any more details than he already had. Namely, that it didn’t come to fruition.”
RELATED: Producer Fredrik Malmberg Provides Update On Solomon Kane And Conan The Barbarian TV Series
As for Schwarzenegger’s comments about the John Milius script he explains that it was almost adapted to film as King Conan: Crown of Iron. However, he dropped out due to his political aspirations as Governor of California.
Einherjar also said, “By the time he left office he left office, he had aged out of the Milius script, so there’s no reason to even bring it up. Even so, Malmberg gave the Conan movie rights to Arnold by way of Universal, who set about developing Legend of Conan, now featuring Arnold’s Unforgiven pitch, or more accurately David Gemmel’s Legend, with Druss re-written into Arnold’s Conan, because that’s what it was set to be.”
“More than that, this was the last chance to do a King Conan movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he elaborated. “This was the last time a studio with the resources to make such a movie contemplated actually doing so. This was when there was a script, and there was a director. And that would be Miguel Saposcnik of later Game of Thrones and House of Dragon fame – and, lest we forget, they had the rights. All Universal had to do, was give it the greenlight. But they chose not to.”
As for why they chose not, Einherjar says, “Legend of Conan lost traction at Universal right around the time when Terminator Sega Genesis came out and flopped. Arnold’s earlier post-Governor comeback movies also flopped. But him returning to the Terminator, his most iconic role, didn’t excite audiences cost them to second guess investing into the return of his second most famous role.”
“So in the end, Universal pulled the plug and allowed the rights to revert because no other studio wanted to take it on. When this happened, Legend of Conan, a project developed by and exclusively for Universal was dead. It’s not pending. The patient has expired. Legend of Conan is dead,” he asserted.
With the film dead, Malmberg pursued bringing Conan to a streaming service, first with Amazon and more recently with Netflix. However, as noted above, both of those pursuits failed, but Malmberg looks to be still pursuing a live-action Conan adaptation, but this time returning to the big screen.
What do you make of the live-action Conan series not happening at Netflix? Are you interested in a new Conan live-action film? Are there any stories you would like to see a potential film adapt?