Since the end of his political career, action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger has dove back into the world of movie-making head first. He popped into Sylvester Stallone’s action star team-up, The Expendables, for a cameo, he signed on to play an aging Sheriff in Last Stand, and he agreed to work with Stallone again, playing a career inmate in The Tomb. While running into a familiar face from the old days is usually a welcome experience, Arnie’s comeback has been met with doubt and derision by a huge segment of the film fan population. At 65 years of age, should the big guy still be making action movies? When he’s asked to have those big hero moments where he strikes a pose and drops a cheesy pun, will it still play as awesome, or will he now look wrinkled and sad?
Up to this point it’s seemed like his comeback roles have been chosen wisely to reflect the realities of being an aging actor. He’s a badass from the old days, a cop at the end of his career, or a veteran convict who’s been locked up for years. Words like “grizzled” and “tough as an old boot” come to mind when you picture Arnie slipping into characters like these. But with his new role, where he’s going to be playing a member of an elite DEA task force, he may be pushing things a little too far. What sort of an elite task force would include a retiree as one of their members?
According to Deadline Champaign, Schwarzenegger’s newest movie is called Ten. It comes from a Skip Woods (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The A-Team) script and it set to be helmed by Street Kings director David Ayer. It’s a story about the aforementioned DEA force who, after plundering a drug cartel’s merchandise, start to get bumped off one-by-one.
While it’s still up in the air whether Schwarzenegger’s comeback to acting is going to be a flop or a second act worth celebrating, his involvement in Ten seems like the sort of thing that should give even those who have been enthusiastic about his return up until this point pause. Do we really want to see the icon of the ’80s action boom rubbing elbows with the guys who are responsible for things like The Fast and the Furious, S.W.A.T., and Hitman? And do we really need to see a guy old enough to be a lot of people’s grandpa taking roles that don’t have words like “wore out” or “grumpy” in their description? Only time will tell, but with a little faith and the magic of H.G.H., you gotta think there’s still a chance that a movie like Ten could surprise us all. Fingers crossed, biceps bulging.