Paul Verhoeven Wants to Direct Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Legend of Conan

"Well, age doesn't mean anything to me, because I work out every day. I work out twice a day, as a matter of fact. At night I work out with weights, and in the morning I do cardiovascular training. So for me, to get on the set and to swing the sword around again and to ride the horses and all those things doesn't mean anything [does not scare me], because I feel like I did thirty years ago. So as long as I stay in shape, that's the key thing, and to keep your body young. Even though you do feel the pain when you wipe out and when you do your fight scenes and you get more sore and the body doesn't come back as quickly and all this . . . but just grind through it, you know? That's what it's all about!"

"If they asked me, I'd certainly love to - let's put it that way. But I don't know what the script is. I don't know what Arnold wants. I'm a big fan in fact of Conan. That's a great movie and I found that the composer, Basil Poledouris, basically inspired many of my movies [the soundtracks] like Arnold, Robocop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall. The score of Conan is great. The style of editing that (John) Milius used was very beautiful, and Arnold does a great job. He was really the perfect choice."

"We can. As you know right now, we're concentrating on the story and the script, and then we'll go out and find the right director who has the same passion as the rest of us in the group. And you always have to let the creative side and let the director put his stamp and mark on it so you never know what's going to happen with the production design. I mean, we're trying to get the TOP production people involved. We're talking all the time about who we'd see doing the production, and our dream would be to have the WETA Workshop guys, the LOTR and Hobbit guys. They are huge Conan fans and they would be great to be involved on the creative side. But if they wanted to pay homage to the old swords, we could do it. But will the director and the whole team think that's a copout or is that an homage? So you never know."

"I would like to see that Conan has it still [the original sword], but it would be cool to pick up on some new fighting techniques. Wouldn't it be nice to have Arnold fight with a double-axe? In the comics, he always has that swinging double-axe. I'm all for double-axes. But the sword is so classic, and it has to be in there sometime."