Details on Tom Arnold's 'True Lies 2' Pipe Dream

In thesummer of 2009, comedy actorTom Arnolddid an interview with the New York Times where he boldly claimed not only wasTrue Lies 2happening, but it was scheduled to shoot in 14 months,“the day after Arnold Schwarzengger stops being governor of California.” The comment was eventually dismissed as probably another of Arnold’s not-particularly-funny jokes, especially when Schwarzenegger left office and didn’t immediately start flying Harrier jets again.

Instead, Schwarzenegger saidthis monthhe’s considering somewhere in the vicinity of 15 different projects, including a fourthTerminator, a WWII drama calledWith Wings as Eagles, and possiblyThe Expendables 2, once Sly Stallonefinds a writer and director. But no mention of a sequel to James Cameron’sTrue Lies.

Yet, somehow, Tom Arnold still has it in his head they’re doingTrue Lies 2together. That, or Arnold is being downright hilarious again. Arnold toldMovieWeb,“We have both read the script. There is a script that James Cameron and a guy named Jeff Eastin, who created the TV show“White Collar,” wrote. It is really great. Jim can’t direct it. But he can produce it. We hope it gets done. We have a few fun things we want to do. I am supposed to remain cool about this. For me, it would be a lot of fun to work with the guys again.”

First, Tom Arnold is referring to a draft ofTrue Lies 2written at leastelevenyears ago. After a legal battle involving the original film and Universal Pictures that ended in 1998 (source: AICN), Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment began discussing the possibility of a sequel and hearing pitches from outside writers. This brought Eastin into the fold, who, at the time, had sold a few spec scripts that got him noticed in the business.  His script was commissioned and then ultimately shelved circa 2001.

Secondly, Cameron said,“There are no plans for a True Lies 2″ inAugust 2009before explicitly adding,“Since September 11, I’ve never felt comfortable generating laughs with nuke-toting Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. True Lies, even though it has a cautionary thread underneath the pratfalls, is in a strange way a product of a more innocent time.”

Thirdly, Lightstorm Entertainment is producing a True Lies TV series that ABC picked up inSeptember 2010. However, there has been no official word on its development since (other than false rumors of John Cena starring).  Around the announcement he wasdirecting Avatar 2and 3, Cameron said he is not personally involved with the potential show.

Though, curiously, Schwarzeneggerrecently hintedat his involvement with an“international TV series,” but full details won’t be public until a press conference on April 4.

Finally and most importantly, the Eastin script is not“great.” It’s horrendous. Helen Tasker, played byJamie Lee Curtisin the original, is not only a full-blown agent in the sequel, but she somehow ascended the ranks past her husband and his buffoonish sidekick, Albert Gibson (Arnold). This leaves Harry (Schwarzenegger) holding an adopted infant in a wacky role/gender reversal that actually references 1994’s Junior.

It’s pages of wordy exposition and cringe-worthy banter that only gets worse as Harry and Gibson team up to test Helen’s new authority, including a hoax about the KFC recipe. I can’t imagine anyone seriously considering using that script for anything but kindling, and that’s coming from someone fully aware that a Magic 8 Ball movie is in development somewhere.

Arnold, who just landed a spot on the ABC pilot“Other People’s Kids,” could very well be pranking members of the press again. Perhaps he’s taking us on some sort of wild, Joaquin Phoenix-inspired trip where he quietly laughs to himself at the media circus. Maybe he said it for headlines, hoping for a career revival.  Maybe he’s simply delusional.

Source