Reacher

[robp]

Anyone else watching the new Reacher series?  Much better than the movies. It really sticks a lot closer to the books, and the lead certainly looks and acts the part. In fact, I think body-wise he might even make a good Conan. Certainly lives up to the "giant" part.

[johnnypt]

Certainly different from Tom! How did the producer ok that when...oh, wait. Well, you'd think the director...oh him? I guess Lee just took his check and patiently waited for this.

[zarono]

Yep binge watched it in about 3 nights. Hell of a good show, two fisted action all the way through the series. Agreed he would make an excellent Conan!

[thedarkman]

Great series. I’m very familiar with the character, having read most of the books, and the production sticks very close to the original book. The producers and lead actor know and respect the source material, and it shows in the finished product. This is a very violent, action-oriented show, loaded with testosterone, blood and sex. This indicates to me that a true to the source Conan feature can be done, and successfully.

[hyrkanian]

Feb 10, 2022 9:35:26 GMT -5 robp said:

In fact, I think body-wise he might even make a good Conan.

Definitely. I dont know how good actor is he, but with proper haircut and couple of scars, he could be Conan. He even has blue eyes.

[monolith]

Mark Wheeler who is down to co-produce the proposed Netflix Conan project produced the Blood Drive TV show starring Alan Richson. A tenuous link, but one nevertheless.

[robp]

Feb 11, 2022 9:13:37 GMT -5 monolith said:

Mark Wheeler who is down to co-produce the proposed Netflix Conan project produced the Blood Drive TV show starring Alan Richson. A tenuous link, but one nevertheless.

We can hope, I suppose. But I imagine if there's a second season of Reacher, AR will be tied up with that. Consolation is, we get a second season of Reacher lol

[terryallenuk]

Feb 12, 2022 7:54:58 GMT -5 robp said:

Feb 11, 2022 9:13:37 GMT -5 monolith said:

Mark Wheeler who is down to co-produce the proposed Netflix Conan project produced the Blood Drive TV show starring Alan Richson. A tenuous link, but one nevertheless.

We can hope, I suppose. But I imagine if there's a second season of Reacher, AR will be tied up with that. Consolation is, we get a second season of Reacher lol

Second season has been announced

[Char-Vell]

Feb 10, 2022 9:35:26 GMT -5 robp said:

Anyone else watching the new Reacher series?  Much better than the movies. It really sticks a lot closer to the books, and the lead certainly looks and acts the part. In fact, I think body-wise he might even make a good Conan. Certainly lives up to the "giant" part.

Watched the first three episodes last night. Pretty cool show indeed.

I agree the dude would make a good Conan.

[monolith]

Watched the first season of Reacher. It sure is good adult entertainment. Plenty of violence, blood and some nudity. Why Amazon approved this and yet rejected their Conan project is a mystery.

[darthgall]

Feb 14, 2022 4:03:34 GMT -5 monolith said:

Watched the first season of Reacher. It sure is good adult entertainment. Plenty of violence, blood and some nudity. Why Amazon approved this and yet rejected their Conan project is a mystery.

This is speculation, and I don't particularly have insight into movies and TV shows... 

...but I suspect, if you took the exact same Reacher scripts and tried to shoot them as Conan, wouldn't it be significantly more expensive, due to more demanding sets/costume/prop requirements? 

Shooting in a fictional town in Georgia in the modern period is pretty easy, shooting in Arenjun, Zamora would be significantly more difficult. 

But yes, enjoying Reacher, and think Conan would easily graft onto that template...

[Deleted]

Could definitely see Alan Ritchson as Conan. 

[Von K]

Some comments from 2 youtubers on Reacher:

The fact that Reacher, a low budget crime series, out performed The Wheel of Time, a high budget, high concept, series, should say something about the popularity of a strong male lead.

For that matter, consider the massive popularity of the Reacher books, which have been coming out regularly since about 1997.

The detective genre has a LOT of female readers, and a series wouldn't last in that market without appealling to them. My mom loves them.
So, here we have a guy who makes Tarzan look like a sissy, has so little emotion that half his internal monologue is about coffee and quirky math trivia, and his series runs for 25 years, spawns two movies, and now has a TV show.
Reacher does heroic things simply because he's BORED -- which has to be the most "sigma male" thing there is!

I remember Lee Child saying in an interview that he specifically based Reacher on the wandering western hero who rides into town trope, that kind of narrative. Ironhand wrote an essay on Conan stating that he thought this trope should be a major component for any successful Conan TV series.

[robp]

Apr 2, 2022 17:44:04 GMT -5 Von K said:

Some comments from 2 youtubers on Reacher:

The fact that Reacher, a low budget crime series, out performed The Wheel of Time, a high budget, high concept, series, should say something about the popularity of a strong male lead.

I think it says something about generic fantasy with pseudo-medieval settings that make little sense and a plot about a magic McGuffin and a chosen one blah blah blah. Reacher has more in common with Sword and Sorcery than fantasy, the lone wanderer, the less than goody-goody hero, etc. But then REH was into his westerns, perhaps one genre influenced the other.

[kemp]

Mar 26, 2022 6:08:24 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

Could definitely see Alan Ritchson as Conan. 

Maybe, just maybe. Seems like the kind of action show I would have watched when I watched more tv.

Not sure if I am getting the timing right, but that couple in the background during the bitch slap scene seem not to react to the drama enfolding at that moment.