Arnold Schwarzenegger warned us he'd be back, but the ex-Governator's big action comeback as a small-town border sheriff in The Last Stand fizzled over the weekend with a tenth-place box office finish. Shame, because The Last Stand also marks a milestone for director Kim Jee-Woon, who makes his English-language debut with the tongue-in-cheek contemporary Western after building an eclectic resume in his native Korea including the horror pic A Tale of Two Sisters, the Eastern-Western The Good, The Bad, And The Weird, and the crossover thriller I Saw The Devil. Movieline spoke with Kim (via interpreter) about dipping his toes into Hollywood and his plans to put a Korean twist on Inrang, his upcoming adaptation of the anime Jin-Roh: Wolf Brigade.
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The box office has spoken! Jessica Chastain scored the top two weekend spots over Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Stand) and the double-whammy of Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe (Broken City) as the Guillermo del Toro-produced fantasy horror Mama scored a #1 debut with $28.1 million and Zero Dark Thirty stepped into second place. (Oscar rival Jennifer Lawrence didn't come out so bad herself as Silver Linings Playbook expanded to #3 in wide release the same weekend she tenderly slammed her fellow Best Actress contenders on Saturday Night Live.) More power to the ladies! But where, oh where, did Arnold land in his big action comeback?
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“Welcome to Sommerton!” growls Arnold Schwarzenegger in his comeback flick, the ultra-bloody shoot-em-up The Last Stand. As Arnie catchphrases go, it's no “Hasta la vista, baby” — hell, it's not even a “Consider this a divorce” — but it's been 10 years since the Terminator starred in a movie and we'll take what we can get.
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Oh, that Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even taking on the infamous Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA), the ex-Governator did things the Arnold way. From pimping his action movie comeback The Last Stand to delighting the internetz with handwritten (via iPad) quips and quotes ("It's not a tumor! — Arnold") to taking the briefest of political detours as he set fanboy hearts a'flutter, Schwarzenegger proved he's still got what it takes to charm the fickle masses. (We'll see if they vote this weekend where it really counts: At the box office.)
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Forgetting for a second how amazeballs rich the man is, poor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not only is he reentering celebrity life on the heels of an absolutely humiliating personal scandal (not to mention a hit and miss tenure as California Governor), he hasn't actually starred properly in a film since 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
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The Batman finale was the most watched movie trailer on YouTube, though it actually placed only third overall. Also in Thursday's round-up of news, the Palm Springs International Film Festival sets its lineup including opening and closing titles; Sundance unveiled its competition juries; and release dates are set for Arnold Schwarzenegger's Ten and Paramount's Anchorman sequel.
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Poor Jason Momoa. Just a year after he helped reboot the Conan the Barbarian franchise, original Conan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Universal Pictures have struck a deal to reboot the reboot, putting Arnie back in the role of the muscled, sword-swinging warrior.
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Also in Monday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, a Dexter actress boards the Robocop bandwagon. Toronto's Patience Stone heads to U.S. theaters. Despite a recession, the U.K. film industry is growing "significantly." And the San Francisco Film Society Names a winner in its Hearst Screenwriting competition.
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Also making the rounds: Eric Roth will receive an honorary award at the Austin Film Festival, the latest doc from the filmmakers behind Sweetgrass and Foreign Parts makes a deal, and the Sylvester Stallone-Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle The Tomb gets a 2013 release date.
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Having labeled the 1990 sci-fi Total Recall “cheesy,” it was only a matter of time before the makers of this summer’s lackluster Colin Farrell-starring remake had the tables turned on them by Paul Verhoeven, the original film’s director.
And so, Friday at a sold-out screening of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Verhoeven seized the opportunity for a little payback, a good-natured gleam in his eye. “Colin Farrell called it in an interview ‘kitschy,’” he declared with a smile. “So I dare to say that his version was not good.” more »
He was the governor. Next year, he'll be the sheriff. In The Last Stand, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the sheriff of a small town on the Mexican border that must stop a heavily armed drug kingpin and his henchmen after the extreme baddie breaks out of prison and makes a run for Mexico. If you're wondering how an extremely muscular dude with an Austrian accent ends up the sheriff of a podunk North-of-the-Border town, Schwarzenegger's character has a back story: He's a former Los Angeles cop who departed the force after a bungled police operation left his partner crippled. (I start to speak with an Austrian accent after I spend more than two weeks in L.A., too.) more »
Also in Tuesday morning's round-up of news briefs, John Travolta will receive honors at a Swiss festival this fall. Rebel Wilson heads for a new indie project. And Woody Allen's next film is starting to take shape.
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Friday’s Total Recall reboot trades heavily on brand enthusiasm for Paul Verhoeven’s original 1990 dystopian sci-fi actioner, but its makers had to be careful not to invoke too much of the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. And cool as it would’ve been to see the former Governator pop up in the new, grittier reimagining starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, and Bryan Cranston, director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) explained to Movieline why he chose not to indulge his inner fanboy.
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Also in Friday morning's round-up of news briefs, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone woo a Comic-Con crowd revealing some possible projects on the horizon. David Letterman meanwhile let's out a possible Dark Knight Rises spoiler (proceed with caution when reading) and finally Miguel Arteta boards a comic crime novel.
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Also in today's Biz Break: Tim Heidecker's polarizing Comedy finds a buyer, Matthew Lillard's Fat Kid heads to Cannes, an Italian festival war turns even uglier, and more...
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