Arnold Schwarzenegger Says This Cult Classic May Get A Sequel
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When Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back,” he certainly means it. His characters in movies come back, after his foray into politics he’s returned to the realm of action movies that made him famous, and he’s never been opposed to revisiting film franchises. We’ll see him next year in Terminator: Genisys, he keeps showing up in Expendables movies, there’s another Conan in the works, and it looks like we can add one more to this list, as the former Mr. Olympia is talking about making more Running Man movies. (Also, there’s been talk of a Twins sequel called Triplets, with Eddie Murphy playing the brother of Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito, so that might happen.)
The star recently spoke to Digital Spy, and the topic of sequels came up. It’s especially strange that so many of these are in the works given how long it’s been since the earlier installments. But the star compared it to Harrison Ford coming back to Star Wars after all these years. And with a movie like Dumb and Dumber To, a sequel 20 years after the fact, ruling the box office this weekend, it’s not as implausible as it once was.
Schwarzenegger says:
It’s an honor to be asked back after all these years, back to the franchise. This is really wild… They’re doing a Twins sequel, to be called ‘Triplets’ I’ve read the first draft. There’s rumblings of a new ‘Running Man’ movie, so it’s a great honor to be asked back… [Getting in shape for these sequels] comes back to bodybuilding, I’m used to doing cardiovascular training every day. Therefore I’m still in good shape, and I can do the action and have the energy to do these movies.
I love The Running Man. When it appeared in 1987 it fell into that zone of Schwarzenegger’s career where he was transitioning from more grim, gritty, almost exploitation style actioners to broader films with more audience appeal. This was right on the heels of movies like Predator and Raw Deal, and right before he started expanding his horizons into comedies like Twins and Kindergarten Cop, and the biggest, most accessible films of his career.
Though it wasn’t a runaway hit, The Running Man has become a cult classic in the last 25 plus years years. And the dystopian setting, which revolves around a game show that is not that far removed from some of the reality TV competitions on the air right now, isn’t far off from current hits like The Hunger Games, which could make this an attractive property for studios. WWE, yes, the professional wrestling people, made what is essentially the same movie a few years ago with The Condemned.
We’ll have to see if this actually materializes, this is the first we’ve heard of it. The plans sound speculative and loose at best, and it’s hard to imagine a sequel this far removed. Still, stranger things have happened, and at least it’s not a Junior sequel. What do you think, are you ready to see Schwarzenegger in a skintight yellow bodysuit again?
