The Kidd here...
There's a really interesting roundtable discussion going on over at io9 between Frank Darabont, Drew Struzan and BEING HUMAN's Sam Witwer (which led to this update on GODZILLA from Darabont). In talking about each other's projects and Frank's plans for LOST ANGELS though, somehow the talk swung around to Darabont's vision for a CONAN film, in the event that he was ever handed the reins and, of course, minus Schwarzenegger in the equation.
So what would a Frank Darabont CONAN movie look like...?
Well, for one, it would star Jon Bernthal, who played Shane on THE WALKING DEAD and is set to front Darabont's LOST ANGELS on TNT. Witwer relayed a story of THE WALKING DEAD's initial casting where Darabont stated if he was doing CONAN, Bernthal would have been the guy he would have cast immediately.
What did Frank see in Jon Bernthal for the role?
"Because he could play what we've missed in Conan today on the screen. He's got some wit and he's got some intelligence. He's a canny, wily, brutal guy. Bernthal could play that, he really could..."
When asked how exactly he would go about making a smart CONAN, Darabont seemed to have a plan in his head for such an approach.
"You go back to Robert E. Howard, there's a lot of heart there and a lot of mysticism and a lot of questing and yearning in that character... How do you make a smart Conan anything? You do what Dark Horse did with their series of comics. They went back to Robert E. Howard, and they have one of the smartest adaptations of Conan. And that's how you do it smart, it's been done."
I know we're getting KING CONAN... but a Frank Darabont take on the character...? Well, it's fun to dream.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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