Back in April we covered a /Film scoop that all but promised that it would not be Manly Tears or a cartoon that brought Schwarzenegger back onto screens post-scandal, but rather a western. Now Deadline has hopped on the bandwagon and confirmed that Arnold has signed on and will be testing the waters and taking a pretty massive re-debut paycut to start in Last Stand, the American debut of Kim-ji-Woon (I Saw The Devil).
The film has mostly been described in roundabout ways dealing with the tone and thematic content, but Arnold’s part was described in this statement from an unnamed Lionsgate executive…
“It’s an old-fashioned Western specifically designed for a 63-year-old broken-down guy with a moral decision whether Arnold decides to stand up for his town. We always needed an iconic figure for it.”
This has a $30m budget, and was sold hard based on the director’s heat and Liam Neeson’s involvement. With Arnold it seems there is a little more guarded optimism, as he’s no longer a defined Hollywood star, but a more amorphous celebrity figure. It’s obvious he can still make a splash in a film though, and maybe a western that capitalizes on his tarnished reputation will be a good fit.
The film will begin in only a few short months, and the silver lining of his nasty scandal is that killed all of the stupid cartoon and comic projects that were boiling around him. A less audacious (and fucking stupid sounding) re-entry into the entertainment world will be a lot easier to swallow I think.
Excited to see Arnold back on the screen, or is his image to baggage-laden to be relevant as an actor? Let me know what you think, be it via comments below, message boards beneath, or twitter out there.