For Conan they might as well go down to Gold's Gym and pick any big guy doing bench presses. If they are due to start in a few months there won't be enough time for a legitimate actor to bulk himself up for the role.

Nicolas Cage sounds like he's trying to be real diplomatic on something he's upset about.

The role of Conan will be difficult to cast for, simply because Arnold made that an Iconic character. If we had known  Conan to be not a big brute , with muscles on muscles then maybe any action star would do. But now the person needs to really look the role or the movie wont fly. Maybe thats why talk of a young Conan was brought up, but that didnt work with the short-lived series Hercules and wouldnt work in the film. Honestly John Cena ( if he could act, and hell Conan doesnt say much!), or maybe another wrestler? Good luck with this movie, I feel it will go down as a movie with potential, like the Rock in the Scorpian King and get lost on Blockbuster shelves.

Of course Nic Cage is upset..the dude needs work! lol He's broke as a joke! I hope he got a back-end deal on Kick-ass. Im sure hes pounding on the studios door asking to do another National Treasure and prolly begging to do Ghost Rider 2..lol

Vin, Dwayne, and on and on. There is no shortage of Buff actors in Hollywood. Acting chops depends on the script and characterization of Conan. I feel that Dwayne or Vin could fill this role.

Conan has to be played by a muscle-bound actor because that's the way Robert E. Howard portrayed him in his stories. Arnold did a pretty good job cause they limited his dialogue and his accent fit the role. I would rather see a muscular guy that cant act play Conan than a skinny guy that can. I wouldn't be able to buy into a skinny wimp playing one of the toughest characters ever created. He has to match the physical description first.

Knowing Hollywood, they'll probably cast Adrien Brody as Conan. Oh wait! He has already been cast in the new Predator film (as a bad ass specops guy???) and there's no chance he'll be cast as Conan. I only bring this up because Hollywood can scare me with some of their casting choices of "tough-as-nails characters."

Problem is these days no one has really stepped up to take Arnold, Bruce and Sly's mantle's of the tough as nails guys. Prolly why 2 of the 3 are making come backs in action films in the past few years and doing a damn good job. For a while i was thinking THE ROCK was..but he is doing mostly all family films. Jason Stathem is good and Vin Diesel was like that for a while, but he dropped off the face of the earth. Sure most of them (all ) arent the best actors in the world. But was the same with the old school guys. Arnold was the MAN, but no way he was winning and oscar. I think Hollywood these days are trying too hard to capture lightning in a jar, just get the guy best suited for the role and see what happens (at least for a straight up action flick) You arent going to be seeing Predators on the list for best film come oscar time..lol Just make a sweet action flick with beleiveable tough as nail dudes.. not skeletons with crooked noses like Mr. Brody.

Sorry to tell you, Pilgram but your analogy between Conan and a bad-ass Spec-Ops guy concerning Adrian Brody just fall flat.  Two totally different things:  For one Conan is...well, Conan and I don't know if you met any real soldiers but none of them look like muscle bound freaks and are pretty much on par with looking normal every day humans, ala Adrian Brody. I'm talking about Green Berets, Rangers, Special Forces, etc.  So, I don't see how Adrian Brody wouldn't fit the role.  In the Army I've met plenty of these guys and they might not look it but they are bad ass.  Adrian Brody could quite plausibly fit the bill.

MR. JAW...People dont want to have a whole hell of alot of realisim tossed down their throat when they are going to see a movie about a bunch of dudes going to an alien planet to battle with a species of creature that hunt everythign for their lively hood and shoot lasers from their shoulder. We want an arnold type guy, we want over the top vs over the top...not Skeleton Brody. We all know that specops guys are fairly normal looking, my buddy form High School was a RECON marine and he looked nothign like Adrian Bordy and neither did any of the guys he worked with...sure they werent huge like arnold but they didnt look 90 lbs soaking wet holding a cinder block like Brody.

Pilgram, Jawbreaking, and Darkknight:

Of course, Adrian Brody might work out and build up some muscle. Ask Christian Bale. He went from skeleton man in The Machinist to buffed up vigilante crusader in Batman Begins in just a few months. And besides, isn't Adrian Brody supposed to be a cop in Predators? He might work out for that too.

And since when is Nick Cage broke? Didn't the National Treasure movies do well? I mean, they are planning a third one along with Ghost Rider 2.

And why was anyone suggesting Adrian Brody as Conan in the first place? You know they will probably cast some hulking dude. But then again, they did cast Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and he's not nearly a big as the Marvel Comics character.

From Wikipedia

Howard describes the character as wearing whatever garb is typical for the land and culture in which Conan finds himself. Though Howard never gave a strict height or weight for Conan in a story, only describing him in loose terms like "giant" and "massive", he did once state that Conan and another of Howard's characters, the crusader Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, were "physical doubles" at 6'2" and 210 lbs.

He was also once described as being 6' 180lbs. Anywhere in that range would work for me. No need to hire some dumb ass wrestler. Just find an actor that fits Howards description. There are plenty out there Im sure. We really dont need another Arnold. Im a Howard fan. Ive read all of his Conan stories. Nobody wrote the character better. The producers need to to be as faithful as possible to the source material and the film will work.