Casting At Conan
March 5, 2010
Things have been a bit quiet, yeah? Sorry about that. A bit busy.
There’s been some Conan news that might interest some of you. It certainly interested me.
Sorry that I haven’t been keeping up with the casting information–probably because most of it hasn’t excited me. In case you haven’t heard, Conan has been cast, as well as a couple of the villains.
For Conan, we get Jason Momoa, whom I know nothing about. Apparently, he’d a dude from Stargate: Atlantis. Yeah, didn’t watch that. No hit against Stargate, but I just don’t watch a lot of TV. I’m sure it’s a great show and I’m sure he’s great in it. For Conan? Well, I can see him as a young Conan, kind of the Barry Windsor-Smith version of the young Conan from Marvel.
Mickey Rourke is apparently cast as Conan’s father, possibly named Corin. I honestly don’t know how accurate this is. Rourke may only be in talks or it may be a rumour. This, frankly, would be cool. He had a really short part in Conan the Barbarian, but William Smith as Conan’s father did it right. Heck, he kind of set the mood for the following story.
There’s a rumour that Stephen Lang has been approached to play the main villain:
Khalar Singh is in his 40s to 50s, Asian or Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Mongol, Turkish, or Persian,. . .
Now, the rest of the description goes on to talk about a real bad-ass, which certainly Lang could play, but given a name like Singh, isn’t there anyone who might be able to play that part? Anyone? Anyone at all?
In any case, now the “romantic leadâ€â€”um, female lead perhaps? Romantic lead does not sound right for a Conan movie—has apparently been cast. Those of you who saw GI Joe might have opinions on Rachel Nichols who played Scarlett, but not having seen it, I really don’t. She looks attractive enough.
I’ve heard that two guys named Bob Sapp and Raw Leiba have been hired to play minor villains. Good for them. Don’t know them at all, so I don’t have much to say.
Basically, what this casting news is telling me is that this movie is quickly heading into ‘meh’ territory for me, with a likely excursion along ‘total B-movie’ route. Might be fun, but there’s no way this movie is going to hold a candle to Conan the Barbarian. Robert E Howard purists out there will likely say the same in regards to that movie and the source material, but I liked it.
I think Raw Leiba will suprise you Fraser,
I’ve seen him play Latin,African American and Native American roles.He can act,I remember him from The Wire on HBO and Street Fighter TYL on the G4 network.Hes also very athletic and supposedly hes up for a couple of Superhero/Villian roles, one in the Luke Cage movie and possibly “Black Panther”.
If only they’d make a Luke Cage movie! Of course, I’m also voting for an Iron Fist movie, so let’s call it even and get a Heroes for Hire movie off the ground!
Fraser
They are making a Luke Cage move heres the link and John Singleton is directing it so its big time http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401601/
I dont know much about Bob Sapp but I do know who Raw Leiba is,,hes one of those actors you know could do something with a good script,has that action hero physique..I like Rourke too..Jason Momoa as Conan? ummm no.
I’ll have to keep my eye on this. I like what they are doing with Luke Cage in the New Avengers, but I’m a bigger fan of Iron Fist (and Luke Cage’s appearances in Immortal Iron Fist). I hope IF has at least a cameo in the Luke Cage movie.