He said he’d be back.
Between being Mr. Universe, a major Hollywood action star and a California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s resume is as diverse as they come.
Last week, he announced a new partnership with legendary Marvel comic creator Stan Lee as part of his foray back into the entertainment industry. The project? A multi-platform superhero series that recasts Schwarzenegger as “The Governator,” a man who steps down from his political career to turn to fighting crime.
The news broke last week through an Entertainment Weekly cover story that teased the first image of this illustrated Arnold. With a comic book, Internet programming and a 52-episode animated television series announced as in the works, this dramatic and potentially silly return has entertainment writers questioning the logic of such a move.
Schwarzenegger, speaking at a press conference at the MIPTV conference in Cannes, said Monday that this will ultimately become a 3-D feature film, according to reports from Deadline Hollywood.
Schwarzenegger will voice the animated rendition of his crime-fighting alter ego. At the same time, he’s been reported as circling many scripts from a variety of genres as part of a plan to get back on the silver screen.
For the iconic 63-year-old, who was a massive star of action, comedy and action-comedies before leaving Hollywood for politics, this is a way to come full circle. Conceptually, “The Governator” represents a fusion of his two major public arenas: politics and films, where his persona has regularly made him appear larger than life.
But is this project doomed to fail?
It’s an impressive — and costly — venture, launching Schwarzenegger’s famous mug across plenty of media that could potentially earn millions. At the same time, the whole venture is based on marketability, something that’s actually uncertain for the action hero.
Aside from his brief, much-hyped cameo in Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables” last year, Schwarzenegger’s last major film role was eight years ago in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” While his most successful films — “The Terminator” franchise, “Predator” (1987) and even his comedy fare like “Kindergarten Cop” (1990) — have continued lifelines on basic cable syndication, there’s a very obvious gap in existing Arnold fans.
That’s to say, will the older fans flock to a comic book publication, or will young people care enough about his image to invest in this costly venture? Does this project really warrant the multiple media forms it’s already taking, or is this a vain effort for Schwarzenegger to shove his mug back into pop culture consciousness?
With the television series slated for a late 2012 release and the feature film in the works for early 2013 according to Deadline’s reports, this project is still in its early phases. In the meantime, it’s not unlikely that Schwarzenegger will pick an action or comedy piece to test his box office potential.
That’s where the real answers will lie, where we can found out if he is a viable star despite his age and his lack of presence in the entertainment industry over the last several years.
A star trying to revive his career is nothing new in Hollywood’s storied history, but a gamble this big and this ludicrous could very well, um, “terminate” Schwarzenegger’s image.
That’s Entertainment.
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