I don’t know what to think about movie news lately. Monstrous Jane Austen adaptations. Wildly unnecessary sequels to ’80s genre films. Friday the 13th owning the box office. Terry Gilliam prepping more than one movie at once. Cats and dogs, living together. Mass hysteria.
And now this: Harry at AICN posted a piece saying that a well-placed source puts Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming The Expendables. Rather than trying to make sense of Harry’s breathless text I’ll just quote it: Arnold Schwarzeggar [sic] is going to be playing Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar [sic] in THE EXPENDABLES. He will be shooting for one day, and it seems that the Gov and Sly’s character Barney Ross have some history back when the Gov was shooting CONAN THE BARBARIAN! So it’s a cameo, but a pretty awesome one for anyone who watched Sly and Arnie compete throughout the ’80s.
What’s more (and, to me, exciting) is that Sir Ben Kingsley won’t appear in the film, leaving his role to be filled by Eric Roberts. That’s exactly what this movie needed, especially with Mickey Rourke officially on board. (Which Harry also trumpets.) The movie’s Louisiana production office has been gearing up over the past couple weeks, and the cameras will be rolling on 2009’s most necessary movie in the next few weeks.
UPDATE: Or maybe not. Harry is suddenly pulling back on his original assertion. Arnie still has a job to do as Governor of California, and that could preclude his appearance in the film. (Surprise, surprise.) The new line is that if he has time, he’d appear not as the Governor, but a scarred old…something. Solider? POW? Steroid recovery poster-child? Who knows.