Arnold Schwarzenegger spent some time this past Friday in Leeds at the Centenary Pavilion doing An Evening With event. The man talked about all things Ah-nuld, diving into his life story and shelling out advice where he could spare it. He also talked a bit about his film career and returning to some of the franchises that gained him notoriety, as well as a sequel that he'd jump at the chance to do, given the opportunity.
Arnold on returning to classic franchises:
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!
Whether or not he'd want to do RUNNING MAN 2:
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.
You can check out some more of what he said here, but he basically went on to say that certain franchises need the same actor to return and mentioned a few of the projects that he passed on (FACE OFF and THE ROCK among them). Despite his age, I think a CONAN flick can really play up to the man's strengths if done correctly. As far as a RUNNING MAN 2 . . . I just don't see it happening. The film takes advantage of its 80s charm and bringing audiences an updated version of that might seem a little too HUNGER GAMES at the moment. Who knows. Either way, we have a lot more Arnold to look forward to in the future, and I hope these projects fare better than the likes of THE LAST STAND and ESCAPE PLAN.
The Terminator franchise will see the return of Schwarzenegger in TERMINATOR: GENISYS on July 1, 2015.
I'd love to see Arnold tackle another comedy!