Ladies & Gentlemen, I think we can officially declare it a fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger missed making movies while in office as Governor of California.  What else could possibly account for the gluttonous amount of projects headed our way starring the Austrian Oak?  Let’s do a headcount…

  • The Expendables 2 (2012) – completed
  • The Last Stand (2013) – post-production
  • The Tomb (2013) – currently filming
  • Unknown Soldier (2013) – shooting in August
  • Ten (2014) – shooting this winter

Everyone knows what the first project is.  The Last Stand is his true “comeback” film and is directed by the illustrious Kim Jee-Woon.  The Tomb is a prison flick with Stallone.  Unknown Soldier has been described as a High Plains Drifter-esque revenge actioner about a mysterious killer, who may not be human, that takes down some arms dealers.  The gentlemen who brought you Act of Valor will be helming that particular piece of cinema.  Ten is a David Ayer project whose plot sounds like Predator without an alien.  It basically involves an elite team of corrupt DEA agents who are systematically stalked and killed one-by-one by an unknown assailant.  Arnold is also still attached to the proposed Twins sequel, Captive, and the oft-postponed Cry Macho.

So what will the former Mr. Universe be shooting next year?  Terminator 5, for a 2014 release.  Don’t take my word for it though.  Listen to the man himself…

“I can’t say to much they want it held in secret if you know what I mean, but I will say that next year I will start filming it and it’s going to be one of the hardest films I have ever done I can tell you that already for sure”, Schwarzenegger said “… they have six months set aside just for filming, so I will be training and getting into the best physical shape I possibly can before filming starts. It does follow Salvation although some of the producers and franchise owner were not to happy about the job McG did with it but they felt it was good enough to continue on and they want the fifth and sixth installments to be the closing of the franchise.”

The announcement of the film is no shocker.  We’ve all known both Terminator 5 & 6 were in the works since cinematic saint Megan Ellison snapped up the rights awhile back.  Until now though, we’ve never been given a clear production timetable.  The real question now is whether or not Justin Lin is still involved.  It was his pitch for two more sequels that interested Arnold in full-on returning to the franchise in the first place, so I imagine he still has SOME involvement.  Ellison previously hinted that they were waiting for Lin to be available to direct one or both films.  I wonder if that is still the case. 

Fast Six begins its shoot sometime in the coming months and since they are no longer filming the 6th and 7th entries of that franchise back to back, it certainly seems that Lin COULD be available to direct Terminator 5 if production doesn’t begin until at least Spring 2013.  I also wonder if this had anything to do with the decision to nix the back-to-back filming of the (supposedly) final entries of the Fast series?

Filming later in 2013 also leaves a big enough opening for Arnold to shoot yet another film, if he so desires.  Normally I’d expect an actor to use that time for a break, but I guess Schwarzenegger feels he had plenty of time off while he was a politician.  He certainly won’t hear any complaints coming from me if he continues to make up for lost time like this.  Six (possibly seven) films in less than three years is a LOT of Arnold to go around.  Can you see my shit-eating grin coming through in this article yet?

However this pans out and whoever ends up in the director’s chair for T5, one thing is for certain…

HE’S BACK!!!

Source | Moviehole