Arnold Schwarzenegger teams up with Christopher McQuarrie for new 'Conan' movie

Los Angeles: Hollywood action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to reprise one of his most iconic roles as director Christopher McQuarrie has been attached to write and direct ‘King Conan’ for ‘20th Century Studios’.

According to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, McQuarrie, who helmed the four most recent entries in Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise, will helm the project that would see Schwarzenegger return to the sword-and-sorcery role he first played in the 1982 fantasy film ‘Conan the Barbarian’ and its 1984 sequel, both based on the character created by author Robert E Howard.

Schwarzenegger made the announcement at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend, describing the film's premise to the assembled crowd. “It’s a great story where Conan was a king for 40 years and he gets complacent and now he gets forced out of the kingdom, slowly,” the actor said, adding that the story would involve ‘all kinds of madness and violence and magic and creatures’.

The 77-year-old star noted that modern visual effects technology and studio resources would allow the project to be realised on a far grander scale than its predecessors.

The project has had a long road to the screen. ‘Universal Pictures’ previously held the rights to the character in the early 2010s, with ‘Fast & Furious’ writer Chris Morgan developing an ‘unforgiven-style story for Schwarzenegger’s older Conan.

Besides ‘King Conan’, Schwarzenegger revealed he has been in discussions with director Dan Trachtenberg - who revived the ‘Predator’ franchise with 2022’s ‘Prey’ and last year’s ‘Predator: Badlands’ - about a possible return to that series. The Austrian-born star also disclosed that he has received a script for ‘Commando 2’, which would see him return as Colonel John Matrix, the role he originated in the 1985 action film.