Tag: True Lies

Posted on in News, Television News

‘True Lies’ Series At CBS Replaces Jamie Lee Curtis With ‘She-Hulk’ Actress Ginger Gonzaga

A True Lies sequel series was originally being pitched to Disney+ by McG (Terminator: Salvation) with an expectation that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis potentially reprising their roles from the James Cameron action film.

Sadly, the project was passed-over and headed to CBS as a pilot with Arnold Schwarzenegger being replaced with television/character actor Steve Howey (Shameless) as the new Harry Tasker.

Now, Variety has a casting update that comedic actress Ginger Gonzaga (She-Hulk) is taking over the Helen Tasker role, that was previously played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the wife of secret spy Harry Tasker (Howey).

Helen is described as Harry’s supportive wife, mother of two teenage kids and a linguistics professor who is getting annoyed by Harry’s constant business trips away from home. Increasingly angered, she feels as if she’s been robbed of the life she once envisioned for herself. Thrilled when Harry invites her along for a trip to Paris, Helen is in for a rude shock when she sees a very different side to her husband, learning that he is in fact a world-class spy.

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.

McG and James Cameron will executive produce.

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

Posted on in News, Television News

‘True Lies’ Series At CBS Replaces Arnold Schwarzenegger With Steve Howey: Anthony Hemingway To Direct Pilot

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

Posted on in Television News

CBS Orders A ‘True Lies’ Series Pilot With James Cameron Producing & McG Directing

A while back director McG (Terminator Salvation) revealed to Collider during a video podcast interview that he was working on a True Lies series, potentially for Disney+. However, that doesn’t seem to come together as CBS has nabbed the project giving it a pilot order with James Cameron executive producing, McG set to direct it’s pilot, Matt Nix writing the script, and Disney’s 20th Television will be still involved as well.

The update on the project coming from The Hollywood Reporter.

Instead of a direct sequel, it is starting to look like a reboot of sorts as stated in the article. The original 1994 release written and directed by James Cameron is actually a remake of the 1991 French film La Totale!.

Shocked to discover that her bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband is a skilled international spy, an unfulfilled suburban housewife is propelled into a life of danger and adventure when she’s recruited to work alongside him to save the world as they try to revitalize their passionless marriage.

Rebooting isn’t all that shocking as CBS is already airing reboot series such as The Equalizer and Clarice.

They’ll have to knock it out of the park with the casting as scaling-back the action for a network television budget likely isn’t going to woo fans of the original film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, the latter getting multiple scene-stealing moments in the action-comedy. I remember seeing the film at the drive-in during the summer of 1994 and was one of my best movie-going experiences at the time.

Speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor is currently busy with his own untitled spy series for Skydance and Netflix that will focus on a father-daughter dynamic with Top Gun: Maverick’s Monica Barbaro in the daughter role.

McG recently worked on the Disney+ series reboot of Turner & Hooch.

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: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Actress Monica Barbaro Takes Leading Role In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Father-Daughter Spy Series At Amazon

Last month it was reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be returning the spy genre with an untitled show at Amazon’s Prime Video from Skydance Television and Scorpion creator Nick Santora. That would focus on a father-daughter duo. Arnold previously worked with Skydance the last two Terminator installments, Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate.

Today, Deadline reports that Top Gun: Maverick actress Monica Barbaro has landed that lead role of Arnold’s daughter and the show’s second lead.

Monica plays the only female fighter pilot in the upcoming Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Arnold Schwarzenegger Returns To The Spy Genre For Original Skydance Television Series – ‘True Lies’ Series At Disney+ Not Happening?

Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally making his television debut!

Deadline reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Skydance Television are teaming for an original father-daughter spy adventure series from Scorpion creator Nick Santora. 

They also mention that the project will be out to streamers soon but I think it’s obvious we’ll they’ll be taking it. 

I would bet heavily that the series would end up landing on Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, given that Skydance has an existing relationship with Amazon for their Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher shows and multiple high-budgeted Skydance Media films have landed at Netflix. 

I’m leaning towards Amazon as Santora is the showrunner and executive producer of their upcoming Jack Reacher series. 

Arnold has previously worked with Skydance on the two soft-reboots of the Terminator franchise with Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, both had trouble earning money at the box office. 

You might remember that producer/director McG (Lethal Weapon, Terminator: Salvation, Charlie’s Angels) teased to Collider a while back he was developing a series based on James Cameron’s True Lies series, pitching with the aim for it to land at Disney+ that may have seen Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis potentially reprising their roles. 

This news might confirm that True Lies won’t be happening.

Schwarzenegger had been trying for years to get a direct sequel to Conan The Barbarian titled The Legend of King Conan, but hasn’t had much luck getting to the production stage as Universal Pictures has seemingly dropped those plans. 

In 2018, it was reported by Deadline that a Conan The Barbarian series was in the works at Amazon. I’m curious if this spy series lands at Amazon that it would help establish a relationship that leads to Arnold reprising the Conan role. Amazon also is currently in production on shows set in the fantasy worlds of Lord of The Rings and The Wheel of Time. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE