After finishing his run as Governor of California, the former action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger was all set to make a big return to acting, but now the Austrian Oak has decided to stay away from the screen; in light of the recent, and very public, scandal surrounding his personal life.
Details of the current scandal are very public, and don’t directly relate to the movies Arnold was attached to, or was considering becoming attached to, however they have shaken up his personal world enough, and brought him under enough public criticism to take an indefinite hiatus from acting; halting plans on both the upcoming Terminator reboot, and Cry Macho.
Cry Macho will be the most highly affected movie; as not only had Arnold officially signed on to appear in the movie, but he was up for a $12.5 million dollar paycheck (plus a share of the gross), and was due to being production this August; with it being billed as his comeback film, and a possible transition movie that could shift him away from action, and into more serious drama work.
A lengthy hiatus could also seriously hamper Arnie’s comeback options; as the former action star is already 63, and unlikely to prove believable as an all out action hero if he waits too long to return to the screen (although his friend and fellow action star Sylvester Stallone did release The Expendables when he was 64); it’d already be difficult to accept the former politician as an unbeatable killing machine, if Justin Lin’s (Fast Five) Terminator reboot was going ahead now.
The only likely project to continue on is Arnie’s animated cartoon The Governator (which saw a fictional version of the star appearing as a crime-fighting superhero), although it’s highly likely that it will also be imminently put on hold, until either the scandal begins to pass, or the offers prove too lucrative to ignore; the only question is, will the movie-going public forgive Arnold’s transgressions, or turn out to see him star as an action hero if he waits for too long to return to acting?
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
