(It's interesting to note that Conan had a similarly macho protag but managed to handle the sex scenes in less creepy fashion by contrast.) You've also got a vanilla villain in Maax, played by Rip Torn (who could not care less about his performance), whose sole purpose is to kill the warrior prophesied to bring about his downfall.and do it in the most roundabout way possible. Storywise, Dar, our heroic protagonist, uses his power over animals to trick and damn near rape the central love interest, a half-naked woman named Kiri ( Tanya Roberts) who is your basic damsel in distress, but is later revealed to have a bit more to do with the plot (sort of). How Could / Why Should It Be Adapted?There are many, many flaws with Coscarelli's Beastmaster that audiences today would never stand for, both on screen and behind the camera. Yet The Beastmaster could still be a diamond in the rough if it acquires some proper polishing. There's humor and action and magic and mayhem in The Beastmaster, doled out in equal measure with misogyny, animal cruelty, downright awful storytelling and sub-par fight sequences. Dar is able to scout long distances ahead by looking through the eyes of his eagle, can overwhelm opposing forces with the strength of the black tiger and uses the ferrets to steal keys, enter narrow spaces, chew through ropes.and steal women's clothes. That facet alone is the only thing that makes the property stand out as something unique and it's used in the film with great affect. A child of prophecy marked by the very priests he wars against, Dar ( Marc Singer) holds dominion over a black tiger, an eagle and a pair of mischievous ferrets. So what sets The Beastmaster apart?Basically, the only thing Coscarelli ported over from Norton's series is the protagonist's ability to communicate with animals. Even the assault on the temple steps to kill the villain are almost identical. Along the way, he encounters half-naked women, witches, wizards and horrific creatures. The similarities between the two movies, which screened the same year, are striking: a chosen warrior orphaned as a young boy trains his entire life to exact revenge on the sorcerer who killed his family and destroyed his village. It was more a story of revenge against a man who wronged Storm's family in the past and is a far cry from what The Beastmaster adaptation became.Coscarelli, who was reportedly offered the director's chair for 1982's Conan the Barbarian but turned it down over disappointment in the script, wrote and helmed The Beastmaster instead. It told the story of Hosteen Storm, a former soldier and Navajo commander, who possessed telepathic and empathic connections to genetically altered animals. Norton, the first woman to win the World Science Fiction Society's Gandalf Grand Master Award, wrote the original book in 1959. So what was all the fuss about? What It's About:Before we get into The Beastmaster movie, let's talk briefly about the book series. There was a reboot of sorts in the late 90s and early 2000s with three seasons of the TV series BeastMaster starring Daniel Goddard. The regular reminders drew enough of an audience to warrant a sequel, 1991's Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time, and even a third installment, 1995's TV movie, Beastmaster: The Eye of Braxus. While The Beastmaster wasn't exactly a critical darling (currently at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes), it has established a cult following thanks to its constant airings on TBS (The Beastmaster Station) and HBO (Hey, Beastmaster's On!). Hit the jump to see why there's more to this property than you might think. An early work from director Don Coscarelli ( Phantasm), this swords-and-sandals picture was a very loose adaptation of a book series from award-winning author, Andre Norton.  Today's suggestion first graced the screens thirty years ago and spawned two (terrible) sequels, a TV series and a cult following. While it appears the Hollywood Adaptation machine for new movies is still running strong (for better or worse), sometimes an old property deserves to be revisited, refreshed and rebooted. This week has seen some progress in video game adaptations Splinter Cell, which landed Tom Hardy ( The Dark Knight Rises) in a lead role, and Deus Ex, which will be written and directed by Scott Derrickson ( Sinister).
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