More Arnold to Come

“Wouldn’t it be great if he was in a zombie movie?” I suggested to Schwarzenegger’s agent in early 2013, just six weeks before Arnold signed on to star in one. Now I’m not saying I influenced any decision-making, but I will say Arnold knows what’s hot and what his fans want now more than ever. After playing a sheriff, agent, and regular guy with some weapon skills, I think Schwarzenegger has come to realize that these types of average-man character films just don’t match the magnitude of the event movies that he put out in his glorious past. But fear not, because Arnold’s upcoming film slate sounds equally as epic as his classic films from the ’80s and ’90s!

Let me tell you of these upcoming days of high cinema adventure, and I’ll even share some other pumped-up, prosperous projects coming up on Arnold’s horizon. First up, let’s discuss his upcoming films, two of which will be released this year and one to be filmed this summer.

1. Maggie

What’s hotter these days than zombies? How about Schwarzenegger fighting zombies! Although this dramatic art film will not be your usual Ahnuld shoot-’em-up action adventure, Maggie sounds like it will be Schwarzenegger’s best acting performance captured to date. Distributed by Lionsgate, Maggie tells the story of Wade (Schwarzenegger) dealing with his infected teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin). During her slow zombie transformation in her Midwest home, her loving father stays by her side. Arnold is really going to amp up his acting performance for this role, and I’m very interested in seeing him prove to the world that he’s got the natural talent. Get ready for Schwarzenegger’s character to tug at your heartstrings with his emotional breakdown as Maggie, his daughter, slowly transforms from a sweetheart to flesh-eating zombie. But being an Arnold film, I hear Schwarzenegger does pick up an ax against the walking dead who dare roam his farmland.

I’ve unearthed an opportunity to interview the man who wrote this Arnold film, John Scott III! Maggie landed on the Black List, a list of the best unproduced screenplays in the industry. “What I wanted to do with Maggie is take the zombie genre and unfold the story from a very microscopic emotional level, delving into the personal relationships,” says Scott. “How does this one family handle the fact that their daughter is going to ‘turn’ after a handful of weeks? That’s what fascinated me. While I drew inspiration from the classic and celebrated zombie films, this is an original idea with no source material.”

Look for Maggie to attack movie theaters in early 2015!

2. Terminator: Genisys

Schwarzenegger first broke the news to TheArnoldFans.com that he would at last return to the iconic Terminator franchise. While many believed he would probably play a human soldier whose likeness was used to create the T-800, Arnold gave me the exclusive that he would in fact be playing the Terminator again despite his age of 67.

The logic behind the aging Terminator was actually recommended by Jim Cameron himself as he recently revealed at the 30th anniversary of the 1984 film. “I pointed out that the outer covering [of the Terminator] was actually not synthetic, that it was organic and therefore could age,” says Cameron. “You could theoretically have a Terminator that was sent back in time, missed his target, and ended up just kind of living on in society. Because he is a learning computer and has a brain as a central processor, he could actually become more human as he went along without getting discovered.”

While the first trailer showed very little of Arnold’s T-800 and focused more on the roles of John Connor (Jason Clarke), Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), and Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), Schwarzenegger told me that he’s not just doing a quick cameo. “I have the starring role and you see me throughout the entire movie,” Schwarzenegger told me.

With James Cameron’s ideas in place, our minds will be blown with timeline tampering! One thing we know is that in Genisys, Sarah Connor gets saved by a Terminator attack when she is a child and is raised by Arnold’s T-800. Sarah Connor will now be a badass and will be expecting her Austrian cyborg killer in 1984.

There will actually be several versions of Schwarzenegger’s T-800 throughout the film. We’ll see a gray-haired Arnold in a green jacket and a dark-haired Arnie with a leather jacket, and we also get to encounter the original 1984 nude Terminator!

Bodybuilder Brett Azar plays the onscreen body and physical actor portraying the Schwarzenegger physique in his 30s. We won’t see Brett’s face; we’ll see Arnold’s, thanks to some movie magic. Azar, performing alongside Arnold in Genisys, shared some behind-the-scenes Arnold stories with me. “There’s a moment when he was on the ground during the fight choreography, and every time he went to the ground, he fell on the mat. After the shot, I’d offer to help him up and he’d refuse every time. I mean, we did this for so many takes, and every time he’d get up on his own. He just kept going. And that’s Arnold.”

Soon our conversation turned to Arnold pumping up on the set. “Arnold was working out and was doing donkey calf raises, and Dieter (Schwarzenegger’s friend and stuntman) was sitting up on Arnold’s back. And that was not like a publicity stunt; it was legitimately part of his workout!”
The trailer alone for 2015’s Terminator is already better than T3 and T4 combined, and we’ve seen so very little. On July 1, 2015, just a few months away from now, Schwarzenegger will be back in one of the year’s most exciting films!

3. The Legend of Conan

Remember when I said it couldn’t get any better than Arnold doing another Terminator and a zombie film? I lied; it gets better! Thirty-three years after Arnold got his big movie star break in Conan the Barbarian, we will at last see Schwarzenegger pick up the Atlantean sword again for his last days as king. This is the film I’ve been waiting for since I was 11, when I first saw John Milius’s 1982 masterpiece, which remains my favorite Arnold movie to date and inspired my one and only tattoo.

As the spokesman for Arnold’s numero uno fan club in the world, I personally told Schwarzenegger that a Conan sequel remains his fans’ single most anticipated film. I asked Arnold, now in his mid-60s, what his physical goal is for The Legend of Conan. “Well, age doesn’t mean anything to me, because I work out every day,” he replied. “I work out twice a day, as a matter of fact. At night I work out with weights, and in the morning I do cardiovascular training. So for me, to get on the set and to swing the sword around again and to ride the horses and all those things doesn’t mean anything [does not scare me], because I feel like I did 30 years ago. So as long as I stay in shape, that’s the key thing, and to keep your body young. Even though you do feel the pain when you wipe out and when you do your fight scenes and you get more sore and the body doesn’t come back as quickly and all this … but just grind through it.”

Fredrik Malmberg, president of Paradox Entertainment Inc. and producer of The Legend of Conan, explains to me how Conan’s age plays a big factor in the story. “It’s very Viking, actually,” Malmberg tells me. “We have these super-bad warriors, and they get old. Well, how are they going to die? They don’t want to die from old age or gout. That’s kind of what [Robert E.] Howard writes about when he becomes king … when he’s lazy and when he had all the wine he wants … girls he wanted. It’s like all he really wants is to go back into battle. That’s what makes him truly live. That’s the moment we want to come back to in the movie, when he has been king and he may have felt he would go off like an old animal and die. Then he realizes … I’m not going. I’m too strong to die. I’m going to go out and meet death when I want to meet death. On my terms.”

Arnold is expected to film The Legend of Conan in the spring or summer, to be released in 2016. The film’s producer tells us that many cast members from the first film will be back. Arnold’s bodybuilder friends such as Franco Columbu, Sven-Ole Thorsen, and Ralf Möller have all told me they express big interest in roles.

In addition to Arnold’s exciting return to big event films, there’s much more for us to look forward to. If you’re an Arnold collector, you’re going to love the upcoming Schwarzenegger merchandise. We have a fantastic one-sixth scale John Matrix Commando figure by Hot Toys, Arnold apparel by Homage, and, of course, a tidal wave of Terminator: Genisys collectibles closer to the release of the film.

Finally, I wouldn’t dare leave out Arnold’s promising fitness and bodybuilding prospects. In addition to the new Arnold Series bodybuilding supplements by MusclePharm, his annual Sports Festival & Fitness Weekend is continuing to grow. Established in 1989, The Arnold Classic was once held only in Ohio, but Schwarzenegger’s co-founder of the event, Jim Lorimer, tells me it’s spreading globally.

“We have been expanding our team here,” says Lorimer. “As expanding the Arnold’s Sports Festival concept, this year we’ll be in Madrid for the third year, which is our European event. Again, that is held in September, and we’ve been in Brazil now for two years now. In Rio, that event each year, and next year we’re spreading to, we’re going to be in Kuala Lumpur, or Beijing. It’s gonna be Asia at one of those two locations next year. in 2016, we’re doing to be in Durban South Africa, so by 2016, the Arnold’s Sports Festival will be on all six continents.”

Thank you, Arnold, for giving your fans what we want most: the return of great cinematic characters, getting back into event films, and giving your fitness followers a great reason to stay pumped. While you haven’t seen box office glory for some time now, I see your future as strong as your will.

“I always like the ‘I’ll be back’ line because it is a great philosophy for life,” says Schwarzenegger. “Life isn’t all successes, it is also defeats. But you can always be back. No matter what, just like the Terminator. You’re not a loser when you fall. You’re only a loser if you don’t get up. Winners get up and come back.”