Arnold Schwarzenegger Confirmed to Star in Western THE LAST STAND; Shooting Begins in September

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plans to revitalize his acting career hit a snag when, to the surprise of no one, it was revealed he had a love child with his maid.  Projects like Terminator 5, Cry Macho, and The Governator fell by the wayside, but now Deadline is reporting that the ex-governor plans to “test his post-scandal popularity” with Kim Ji-Woon’s western The Last Stand.  This implies that Schwarzenegger had pre-scandal popularity and I seriously doubt that he did, or at least nowhere near as much as he had before he became governor.

We reported back in April that Schwarzenegger was in talks to play “a border sheriff who must keep an escaped drug dealer from crossing into Mexico.” A Lionsgate exec tells Deadline, “It’s an old-fashioned Western specifically designed for a 63-year-old broken-down guy with a moral decision whether Arnold decides to stand up for his town. We always needed an iconic figure for it.”  So it’s High Noon?  Actually, Ji-Woon (I Saw the Devil) previously said that it was a mix between Die Hard and High Noon, so that sounds good.   Last Stand is budget for $30 million and is expected to start shooting this September.