Conan goes to high definition

Universal Home Entertainment has just announced Blu-Ray Disc versions of Conan The Barbarian and Conan The Destroyer, bringing these Arnold Schwarzenegger fantasy movies to high definition later this summer.

In Conan The Barbarian, the Cimmeran Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is captured as a child after his parents’ savage murder by raiding Vanir led by Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), head also of the snake-cult of Set. Fifteen years of agony, first chained to the Wheel Oo Pain grinding grain and then enslaved as a pit fighter, forge a magnificent body and indomitable spirit. Freed miraculously one day by his owner, Conan, with his companions Suboti the Mongol (Mako) and Valeria, Queen of Thieves, sets forth upon his quest to learn “the riddle of steel” which, his father has prophesied, will confer ultimate power; and to kill the arch-villain Thulsa Doom.

In the second Conan epic, Conan The Destroyer, he is asked by the evil Queen Taramis to accompany a beautiful young princess to find a magic treasure. If he returns with the treasure and the virgin, the Queen promises to bring his beloved Valeria back from the dead. But little does he know that she plans to kill them both, or that the return of the treasure will mean the extinction of mankind.

No bonus materials or specs have been announced yet, but expect the full complement of bonus features from the DVD versions to be present on these releases when they arrive in stores on August 2 for $26.98 each.

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