Principal photography on the new Conan the Barbarian movie has just finished at Bulgaria's Nu Boyana studios. To celebrate, NB have released the first official image of Jason Momoa as **Conan himself.
Let's compare with the words of Robert E Howard... "A tall, strongly made youth"? Check. Momoa is 6'4". He's 30 though, so "youth" is stretching it.*
"Hard, rangy lines... broad heavy shoulders... powerful frame"? All seems fair. Momoa is bigger here than he was in Stargate: Atlantis, although not as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger was in 1982, which should mean that he can move. "Skin brown from outland suns"? Check. Or at least, from Hawaii. "Eyes blue and smouldering"? Check (we think - are they blue?) "A shock of tousled black hair"? It's brown, but otherwise okay. No Pantene Pro V in Cimmeria, and Momoa's trademark dreads have been gone for a couple of years.
So in short, Momoa gets the seal of approval in that he looks the part, and we're pretty happy that, of the final three actors shortlisted, he was the right choice.
The director is Marcus Nispel, of two Platinum Dunes horror remakes (Texas Chainsaw and Friday 13th) and the garbled Vikings Vs. Indians epic Pathfinder. Will this be the project where he proves himself more than a visual stylist? The screenplay is by Josh Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly (Sahara, Dr Strange** **and the in-development Uncharted) with subsequent tinkering by Sean Hood (Halloween: Resurrection).
Conan is due out next year, and we expect more in the way of updates when Comic Con hits next month.
*And yes, the stories take place at various points in Conan's life, but this is supposed to be an origin...