Arnold Schwarzenegger is still in the process of reclaiming his rightful title as cinematic badass, with uneven results. His turns in the EXPENDABLES movies were fun, and THE LAST STAND is outstanding (although no one actually saw it), but more recent efforts like SABOTAGE and ESCAPE PLAN just haven’t been up to par. That said, when he graces the screen next summer, leather-clad and toting a shotgun, in TERMINATOR: GENISYS, the circle will be complete. And despite that movie’s shaky plot details, I’m very excited to see the T-800 wearing Arnie’s skin again.
And we know the “Welcome Back!” tour doesn’t end there. Arnold is in the process of setting up THE LEGEND OF CONAN, which will see him once again tackle the role of Conan the Barbarian. At a recent event, Arnold talked about reclaiming the throne; read on:
It is the greatest honor to be 67 years old and to still be asked to come back into all those franchises. Whether it is the Terminator movie or it is now Conan, it is fantastic! As a matter of fact, when I get back to Los Angeles, i’ll be getting the final script and then I will see it for the first time. But with Universal Pictures, I’ve tried to convince them now for 20 years to go back and continue with the Conan series and they were not as enthusiastic as I was. But then later, new management came in at Universal and they saw it entirely differently. They came to me right away and said they want to pick up the Conan series and to look at some writers and let’s get going on that. So we’ve been working on Conan and I’m really excited to be working on this – to do another Conan movie and hopefully it will be soon!”
But that’s not all! Arnold wants to keep it going for as long as possible – and at 67, why wouldn’t he? – hence he’s bringing up another long lost title that has gained a lot of relevancy these last few years: THE RUNNING MAN.
People loved the movie. I loved the idea, It is like the Hunger Games, it’s that kind of idea. I think that now, if someone writes it (a Running Man sequel) really well, it can be an extraordinary movie. I hope that no one decides to do that movie without me. I would really love to pick it up and continue on where we left off and be the Running Man.”
There’s no (or very little) guarantee THE RUNNING MAN 2 will happen, naturally, but it’s a fun theoretical to dream about. (I can just picture kids today saying, “Oh, that’s a rip-off of The Hunger Games” and my proceeding to smack them.)
Finally, Arnold spoke a bit about the projects he didn’t get to do that he now regrets, like THE ROCK and FACE/OFF!
I think that certain franchises can’t be done without certain actors. But at the same time, I think what’s interesting about this is, and not to change the subject, but I have been asked to do certain movies. And then I did not agree to do the movies because of some reason or the other. Face Off for instance ended up with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, it was a highly successful movie and I was sitting at home and I said “DAMMIT, WHY DIDN’T I DO THE MOVIE!”. So there were situations like that, I remember the Count of Monte Cristo, I just couldn’t figure out how I could change my accent and my body to look different in the end. So I said you know, I’m not going to do the movie. And it was a very successful movie. And The Rock, with Nicholas Cage and with Sean Connery, they came to me and the Producer came to me with kind of like eighty pages. Scripts are usually about a hundred and twenty pages, so they came with eighty pages and a lot of hand written scribbling on it and he was like shaking and he was kind of like weird acting. And I said to myself, you know something, why don’t you come back with the finished script and then we’ll talk about it. Well the son of a gun went out and got Nicholas Cage to make the movie, a highly successful movie, so I was pissed off about that too! So it had been the other way around too. So there were a lot of movies that I turned down that actually turned out to be very successful but with the other actors and I have to say that the other actors did an extraordinary job in those movies.”
Read a few more quotes from Arnold over at The Arnold Fans.