If the realm of scripted television is a “choppa,” then it appears that Arnold Schwarzenegger will, for the first time in his illustrious career, finally get to it.
The action icon is teaming with Skydance Television for an untitled television project with designs of becoming an hour-long series that will see Schwarzenegger as the star and executive producer, reports Deadline. The would-be series is being described as “a global spy adventure with a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter at the center of the story.” While that sounds a bit like the climactic moments of Schwarzenegger’s starring role in director James Cameron’s 1994 classic, True Lies, there’s no indication that the project is an adaptation of any kind.
Schwarzenegger’s aforementioned executive producer title here won’t be his first experience in that capacity, having executive-produced on his meta-minded 1993 movie, Last Action Hero, produced for his starring turns on 2000’s The 6th Day, 2015’s Maggie and 2017’s Killing Gunther, with an executive producer turn on his (best forgotten) single-season run as host of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice and Showtime documentary series The Year of Living Dangerously, amongst others. However, this particular turn with Skydance marks the continuation of a working relationship with the company, which, via Skydance Media, was the producing studio behind his last two franchise sequels/reboots/resets in 2015’s Terminator Genisys and 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate.
That is the extent of what’s known about Skydance’s Schwarzenegger television project at the moment. While there are no production or release windows to cite, it is likely to manifest as a streaming offering, with the company expected to pitch to streamers. The company is also reportedly set to commence preliminary casting for the role of the Schwarzenegger character’s daughter. However, if said role ends up going to Eliza Dushku, then we might just have to reconsider the True Lies similarities.
