James Cameron’s True Lies is considered to be one of the highlights of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action film career as it allowed him to play a government spy alongside a family man, although, the latter part was not really the focus of the film.
McG (Terminator: Salvation) had been trying to develop a sequel series at Disney+ with the hopes to have both Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their roles, a good idea since Jamie’s profile had been recently amplified with the success of Knives Out and the Halloween soft-reboot.
However, things fell apart and Schwarzenegger went off to make a father-daughter spy series for Skydance/Netflix co-starring Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) that certainly feels/sounds like a surrogate for the True Lies project that never came together.
Today, Variety reports that not only is a pilot moving forward at CBS for that True Lies series, but they’ve sadly replaced Arnold Schwarzenegger with television/character actor Steve Howey (Shameless) as the new Harry Tasker.
Who exactly is playing Helen Tasker has yet to be announced.
Matt Nix (Burn Notice) is writing the pilot with Anthony Hemingway (The Wire, Red Tails) directing. It sounds like CBS could turn the project into a generic mid-budget series that likely won’t be terribly exciting in any real way, but Hemingway directing is giving me a slight glimmer of hope.
Interestingly enough, True Lies is based on a French film La Totale! that was released back in 1991.
TRUE LIES – Secretly a spy but thought by his family to be a dull salesman, Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is tracking down nuclear missiles in the possession of Islamic jihadist Aziz (Art Malik). Harry’s mission is complicated when he realizes his neglected wife, Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), is contemplating an affair with Simon (Bill Paxton), a used-car salesman who claims he’s a spy. When Aziz kidnaps Harry and Helen, the secret agent must save the world and patch up his marriage at the same time.
SOURCE: VARIETY
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