Arnold Schwarzenegger Set For The Last Stand As He Faces Uncertain Future Onscreen
Mon, July 11, 2011 
Will people pay money to see an Arnold Schwarzenegger starring feature?
That question was worth asking upon the closing months of his gubernatorial reign in California. We all knew by then he was readying himself for a return to onscreen skull-thumping. But the concern was would movie-goers these days accept him, now in his early 60s, getting a bit pudgier and a tad slower, as an ass-kicker still. There's only so much nostalgia people can have for the mid 80s-to-early 90s action genre and there's a feeling maybe The Expendables fished that lake dry last August.
But that question took on a whole new meaning once the public scandal broke of affairs, love-children with nannies and his subsequent separation, now divorce in-the-works, from wife Maria Shriver. With this new, and unflattering, view of him, would the general public, especially the female quads give him and any new movie of his the time of day? Remember how men and women turned on Tom Cruise after he made a jackass outta himself back in 2005/2006, and that was nowhere near as bad as this!
Well, now that some time has passed, Arnold and his representation are hoping (praying!) that perhaps our current attention on the Casey Anthony verdict and the twelve dumbfucks who let her walk scot-free out of a murder conviction will have deviated enough so he get back to making big action movies and, more importantly, selling movie-tickets.
"TOLDJA" says The Last Stand, the action-thriller (now it's being called a full-on western, did I miss something?) that was planned to be his first starring role since leaving office as first reports by Movie Web, is back on with filming looking to start as early as this September. As first reported, Schwarzenegger will play "a sheriff with an inexperienced staff who becomes involved with trying to stop the cartel leader from entering Mexico after the two parties inadvertently cross paths."
It's a role that with the right amount work put into it by him and director Jee-woon Kim could give us a fresh glimpse of the action icon. Show the audience that he's human, older, flawed, etc. Now more than ever, he needs to acknowledge onscreen just as much as off.
But again whether the public is willing to give Arnold their hard-earned money again after all this remains to be seen.
Reader Comments (1)
Solid article Jamie.
Going to be interesting to see how he fits back in with the creatures of Hollyweird.