CONAN THE BARBARIAN (Oct 20, 1980) Third Draft screenplay by John Milius

Los Angeles: Dino De Laurentiis Productions, 10/20/80. Vintage original film script labeled “Third Draft”, plain blue wrappers, brad bound, 120 pp., every page has blue watermark of “Dino De Laurentiis Productions” with a 1981 date. Overall near fine or better.

Conan the Barbarian was a Hollywood project which took over a decade to be realized. Originally it was in the hands of producer Edward Pressman, who got Oliver Stone attached as screenwriter. Eventually, Pressman sold the rights to producer Dino De Laurentiis, who brought in John Milius, who completely rewrote the script, which was adapted from Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, but with other elements of the screenplay clearly derived from such Japanese film classics as Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) and Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1965).

The film made Arnold Schwarzenegger into a major film star.