After ending his run as California governor and announcing he intends to return to acting, there’s been a lot of speculation over which role Arnold Schwarzenegger would choose for his re-emergence as a leading man. Earlier this week it was revealed he’s voicing an animated series called The Governator, which could become a live-action movie, but he’s got time before then to make some other movies.
Well, according to Variety, Arnie is currently choosing between two flicks, Jee-woon Kim’s thriller Last Stand and Summit Entertainment’s The Tomb.
The Tomb was first announced last May, at which point director Antoine Fuqua was down to direct and Bruce Willis was in talks to star. Fuqua is still attached, but Willis has gone elsewhere, leaving the way open for Arnie. The film centres on prison security expert Ray Breslin, who has devoted his life to designing impenetrable prisons. However, when he gets framed and is sent to the unbreakable prison he helped design, he must find a way to get out and hunt down the man who set him up.
The other option is Last Stand, which Good The Bard & The Weird director Jee-woon Kim himself has said Arnie is interested in, but the two met have yet to meet and discuss it. The movie is about a drug cartel leader who blasts his way out of a courtroom, steals a car, and heads towards the Mexican border. Arnie would 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. Liam Neeson was originally set for the role, but left the project earlier in the year.
So which will he pick as his first project? Well, it seems Last Stand may be the front-runner, simply because Antoine Fuqua is currently scheduled to direct his Tupac biopic this summer. That would mean The Tomb would have to be pushed back, leaving the way open for Last Stand.