You probably would have to be living under a rock not to have heard this news by now but it's definitely significant for the ripple effect it has in the industry, especially if the Austrian Oak keeps to what he is saying here for a lengthy time period. After it was revealed last weekend that the former Governor of California had separated from his wife Maria Shriver, and the new emerged that he'd had an affair with an employee a decade ago fathering a child with her -
USA Today reported yesterday that
Arnold Schwarzenegger's reps have asked his agency CAA to hold all film projects he was involved with currently, saying;
Governor Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines. This includes Cry Macho, The Terminator franchise and other projects under consideration. We will resume discussions when Governor Schwarzenegger decides.
The kidnapping drama Cry Macho was supposed to be the man's man movie from The Lincoln Lawyer director Brad Furman that would ease Arnie back into in the industry before following that up, astonishingly, with a fifth Terminator film, his fourth, that would see him reprise the Cyborg character from the original for Fast Five director Justin Lin. Both movies had huge momentum but the producers of both will be bemoaning the timing of Arnie's personal life becoming private. Terminator 5 backer
Megan Ellison will especially be pissed
having just spent $30 million to buy the rights to make the next two Terminator films and which she hoped would rejuvenate a franchise with it's original star returning for the first time in eight years. Arnie, now 63 years old, may decide to stay away from movies for a year, maybe more (possibly even forever but I don't think that's on the cards) and Ellison just won't be able to wait around for him. So if he doesn't want to do it anymore she is going to have to come up with a plan B. If that is one which involves a different cyborg than The Terminator... ya know, perhaps that might be a good thing considering how jarring it will be to see Arnie play the role now.