He may be a barbarian from a savage age, but Conan's online ad campaign starts here, scaling dizzy heights of modern techno-sophistication. Or at least, here's one of those funky motion posters for **Conan the Barbarian. The website's up too, but there's nothing on it yet.
What even the most casual of Conan fans will notice is that this is a deliberate nod to Frank Frazetta, the fantasy artist whose visceral oil paintings created images of the barbarian even more culturally indelible than Arnie covered in war stripes. Fiery sky? Check. Hill of skulls? Atop. We're missing the semi-naked babe draped at Conan's feet though. Maybe that was going a tad too far in our reconstructed times. Crom laughs at our correctness.
Director Marcus Nispel recently told **Empire **that there was almost no need to come up with concept art for the film, since Frazetta's work exists. That, along with the film's R rating, determined from the outset, is all part of Lionsgate's quest to rescue Conan from the ignominy of Saturday morning cartoons, and give him back his carousing, head-caving edges. Time will tell if they've been successful, but we appreciate the agenda.
Conan the Barbarian stars Jason Momoa as the Cimmerian warrior, with support from Stephen Lang, Ron Perlman, Rachel Nichols and Rose McGowan. It's released in the UK (in 3D, of course) on August 19, and you can read a lot more about it exclusively in the April issue of **Empire, out today!