Conan The Destroyer – Region 2 Special Edition DVD!

Remember back on February 21st , when we told you of a possible Special Edition DVD for Conan The Destroyer? Well it WAS authentic after all, we can now finally reveal!

Sarah Douglas super fan, Jacob Rubinstein, contacted GlobalArnold.com directly about this after seeing the news article.

“Thanks for alerting me to this. I did some digging around, and it seems that Sanctuary Records, who now own the rights to the movie, will be releasing a R2 Special Edition of Conan The Destroyer later on this year, at the end of August/beginning of September.”

GlobalArnold.com has been working very closely with Jacob, Randy Jennings of TheArnoldFans.com and Mark Roberts, the producer of this new SE DVD for the past two months to ensure this disc has the best features available.

“The budget is sort of limited – so it won't be a T2: Ultimate Edition style DVD. But there's a good chance that there will be a Sarah Douglas commentary, and maybe even an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, although nothing for certain” says Jacob. “But it's unlikely that it will be the uncut version, as Universal Pictures own the rights to all of that footage.”

Jacob has been campaigning for the last few years to get the uncut version of CTD released, in all its glory. Many fans felt that Destroyer was inferior to Barbarian, and lacked the bloodiness of the first.

“It has the chance of being just as good as Barbarian was – but the studio opted for a PG rating, so they could draw in more audiences, and so a lot of the footage shot was left on the cutting room floor, including a love scene between Conan and Queen Taramis (for which Sarah kept her clothes on, we'd like to add!). Many of the cut scenes included Sarah, and she has spoken of these many times, including in an interview for Starlog magazine in 1986.”

We don't quite know exactly what will be on the DVD as of yet – but we can tell you for certain that Sarah Douglas has recorded a solo commentary for it, and speaks of her role in the movie, and what it was like working with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Grace Jones, as well as other actors from her vast movie career.

The rest of the DVD content is unknown at this moment in time – but do not fear Conan fans, for this will not be a repeat of the saggy, bare bones edition released by Castle Home Entertainment back in 2000! Time, effort and money have been put into this, because it's about time that Conan fans were given a special edition treatment of Destroyer! Many ideas were pushed forward to Sanctuary, and so there is plenty of choice!

"The UK special edition of Conan The Destroyer is just a a warm up to the real version. Universal owns the rights to the cut footage. They might not be able to put the scenes back into the movie, but it would still be cool if they showed the scenes separately on the dvd. The love scene with Arnold and Sarah was cut early on in the editing. I'm not sure how the quaitly is on some of the scenes. I did get the UK to do a commentary track with sarah, which is great news, however the job of getting the uncut version is not done yet. Help us do that by signing the petition HERE."

But beware – there will be yet ANOTHER bare bones release of the movie coming out very soon – a carbon copy of the 2000 version, it seems. Prism Leisure are releasing it later on this month – July 19th , priced at £5.99. It is a budget range DVD, and does NOT contain any new footage or features. This release will be in Ireland only. Do not be tempted by the price Conan fans, for Crom asks you to wait a few more months for the special edition!

GlobalArnold.com will keep you informed with every detail we hear of this new DVD – so stay tuned! We hope that we've wet your appetite for a bit of Conan now, with the news of the SE – so whilst you're waiting, go stick in your old VHS copies, or bare bones editions even, and revel in the fact that a special edition will be out in just a few short months! Or, you can visit Jacob's Unofficial Sarah Douglas Fansite, and look at his Conan The Destroyer Special Edition DVD Wishlist!

All that praying to Crom on your high mountain has paid off – so you can now sit back and relax. RELAX!

Global Arnold Staff