We’re inundated with reboots, but if there’s a franchise that could actually use one, it’s Terminator.  The idea of killer robots bringing on the apocalypse is an evergreen concept (we’re going to see it later this year in The World’s End), but the current trajectory of the franchise has run out of steam.  Terminator Salvation was a dud, but now we’re soldiering on with Terminator 5.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to return, and since that was the case, fans hoped it would be as a human character (somehow not Sergeant Candy) because why would Skynet churn out old, saggy terminators?  However, Schwarzenegger has revealed that he will indeed be the Terminator in the fifth installment, and shooting is set to begin in January.

Hit the jump for more.

The first poster for Escape Plan has been released.  Formerly titled “The Tomb“, Sylvester Stallone stars as Ray Breslin, the world’s foremost authority on structural security. Breslin is framed and incarcerated in a prison of his own master design and must now figure out how to break out.  Stallone is joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays a fellow inmate and accomplice in the jail break.  I kind of love this poster because it seems like something that could have come from the early 90s.  Yes, it features two action stars of the 80s-90s, but it also evokes a 90s poster in the font and the color scheme.  There’s none of the motion blur that’s become far too prominent in recent posters, and it doesn’t employ the blue-orange contrast either.  I’m sure a future poster will be more generic and make the actors much larger, but this teaser is a nice bit of nostalgia.

Hit the jump to check out the poster.  The film also stars Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, and Sam Neill.  Escape Plan opens October 18th.

YouTube Comedy Week is getting ready to kick off this coming Sunday, and a new teaser video for the event has been released online.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is the focus of this particular video, as the actor takes some time out of his busy schedule to talk about how excited he is for YouTube Comedy Week.  Schwarzenegger expresses his appreciation for Comedy Week acts such as The Lonely Island, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller in signature Arnie fashion, we we even get to see him do his best Blue Steel.

Hit the jump to watch the video teaser.  YouTube Comedy Week kicks off with The Big Live Comedy Show on YouTube on Sunday, May 19th at 6pm PT/9pm ET.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is lining up another lead role, and this one’s a bit of a departure from his hardened characters of late.  The Governator is in talks to star in director Steve Pink’s (Hot Tub Time Machine) remake of the 1984 cult classic The Toxic Avenger.  The original film featured nerdy janitor Melvin (Mark Torgl) being tossed into a barrel of nuclear waste by a pack of bullies.  He then became the hideous, yet superpowered Toxic Avenger (Mitch Cohen).  Interestingly, Schwarzenegger is looking to play a character that is not the titular avenger, so don’t expect some major makeup job in Schwarzenegger’s future.  He’ll take on the role of “The Exterminator” (clever), a former black ops agent, who trains Toxie to use his powers for good. Together they take on the lurking menace created by the polluters, and the polluters themselves.

John Travolta has previously been rumored for the role of the actual Toxic Avenger, but there’s no word on his involvement at the moment.  Pink wrote the script with Daniel C. Mitchell, and the pic is eyeing a fall production start date.  Schwarzenegger most recently filmed David Ayer’s actioner Ten and will next be seen opposite Sylvester Stallone in the prison break pic Escape Plan later this year.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer for the original Toxic Avenger and to read the press release.

Word on the net is that Arnold Schwarzenegger himself has confirmed his involvement with the latest Terminator film.  While there is no official confirmation as of yet, Schwarzenegger was said to announce his appearance in Terminator 5 during a recent press day for The Last Stand.  The Kim Jee-woon actioner was intended to be Schwarzenegger’s big return to a leading role in action, but the opening weekend’s box office was a huge disappointment.  Perhaps returning to one of his signature franchises would help return the living legend to his former glory.  Terminator production has been ramping up behind the scenes as of late, so we’ll have to wait and see how all of this plays out.  Hit the jump for more.

Here’s something you don’t hear very often: “It was a good week for strong women at the box office.” Up against two new, male-driven action movies, actress Jessica Chastain claimed first and second place with Mama and Zero Dark Thirty. Chastain’s fellow Golden Globe winner, Jennifer Lawrence, took third with Silver Linings Playbook – ahead of Gangster Squad and the big name boys that launched debuts on Friday. Both Broken City (with Mark Wahlberg) and The Last Stand (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) were disappointments – though, fittingly, Arnold’s was on a much more epic scale.

This time last week I was two movies into the triple feature I teased the last time we met. While I can’t say I was overly impressed by Gangster Squad, both Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained made their respective cases as qualified Best Picture nominees. Of the two, Zero Dark‘s unrelenting final act not only made it my top pick of the day but also provided some of the most sustained tension I can remember experiencing in a movie theater. Having now seen it for myself, I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with those who have voiced their disbelief at Kathryn Bigelow‘s Best Director Oscar snub.

Zero Dark Thirty praise aside, on tap in this week’s Top 5 are The Last Stand interviews with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, and more, a live-action remake of Toy Story, a new trailer for Primer writer/director/star/almost literally everything else Shane Carruth‘s Upstream Color, Mama interviews with Guillermo del Toro and more, and all of our Sundance 2013 coverage to date. For your reading pleasure, a recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

Two films starring newly-minted Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain topped Friday’s box office. Zero Dark Thirty, the film that brought Chastain her Best Actress win on Sunday, was expected to run neck-and-neck with Mama, the new PG-13 horror feature, at this weekend’s box office. Instead, with a better-than expected $10 million estimate from 2,647 locations on Friday, Mama should easily claim the MLK weekend title with over $25 million. Zero Dark Thirty, last weekend’s number one film, will take second with around $15 million through Sunday. Chastain’s one-two sweep upstaged the weekend’s R-rated action debuts: Broken City and The Last Stand. Both underwhelmed – though with its estimate of $3 million from 2,620 locations, Broken City at least made it into Friday’s top five. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Last Stand was not so lucky. With just $2 million from 2,913 locations, The Last Stand will finish the weekend near the bottom of the top ten. Finally, Silver Linings Playbook expanded into 2,523 locations on Friday, propelling the R-rated Oscar nominee into the top five on its tenth weekend in theatres. Check back tomorrow for full details.

The unexpected pairing of comedy star Johnny Knoxville with action legend Arnold Schwarzenegger works surprisingly well in Kim Jee-woon’s The Last Stand.  Schwarzenegger stars as small-town sheriff Ray Owens who needs access to the weapons kept by resident military history buff, Lewis Dinkum (Knoxville).  Their on-screen chemistry provides some of the best light moments in the movie. I recently had a chance to talk to them about their experience working with each other, as well as finding out their favorite weapons and sequences to film in The Last Stand.  For more on the film, watch the red band trailer and all our previous coverage.

Also starring Luis Guzman, Eduardo Noriega, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Peter Stormare and Forest Whitaker, The Last Stand opens on January 18th.  Hit the jump to watch the video interview with Knoxville and Schwarzenegger.

Some days you write about Studio Ghibli Zippo lighters and some days you’re invited out to ride along with Arnold Schwarzenegger on his own personal tank; such is the nature of the business.  I joined my fellow film journalists in a press event held at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio, a locale that is home to such Western-styled projects as Gunsmoke, Deadwood and even Django Unchained.  It also happens to be the home of Schwarzenegger’s 50-ton M47 Patton tank, the very machine he drove as a youth in the Austrian Army.  We spent the morning being driven around by Schwarzenegger in the tank, learned some amazing anecdotes about his time in the army, watched him crush a car and even talked about The Last Stand, featuring the former Governor’s return to a lead action role, which opens January 18th.  Hit the jump for a recap of the event along with a bunch of insane images. 

Although he’s made an appearance in The Expendables movies, Kim Jee-woon’s The Last Stand marks Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s true return to the big screen. Schwarzenegger plays a retired LAPD officer who now works as a border town sheriff.  When a notorious cartel leader escapes from FBI custody, the sheriff and his ragtag group are all that stand between the criminals and the Mexican border.  Lionsgate has released a new clip that shows while Schwarzenegger may be old, henchmen are still terrible shots.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The film also stars Forest Whitaker, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzman, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez.  The Last Stand opens January 18th.

Director David Ayer’s (End of Watch) upcoming action thriller Ten just nabbed a release date, but those itching to get a look at the film anytime soon will be sorely disappointed.  Open Road Films announced today that Ten will be released on January 24, 2014, which for you mathematicians out there is about 13 months away.  The film is loosely based on Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Ten Little Indians, as it centers on a DEA task force who heists a drug cartel safe house, only to start getting picked off one-by-one by an unknown assassin.  The impressive ensemble cast is lead by Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Josh Holloway, Max Martini (Revenge), Olivia Williams (Anna Karenina), and Mireille Enos (The Killing) rounding things out.

Currently no other film is slated for that same weekend in January 2014, but Open Road has also released a slightly new image from the film.  It’s incredibly similar to the first image of Schwarzenegger that was previously released, but this photo shows the actor striking a different (though no less intimidating) pose.  Hit the jump to read the press release and to take a look at the new image.

Lionsgate has released a new one-minute trailer for director Kim Jee-woon’s action film The Last Stand.  The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a retired LAPD officer who now works as a border town sheriff.  When a notorious cartel leader escapes from FBI custody, the sheriff and his ragtag group are all that stand between the criminals and the Mexican border.  This trailer still walks the confusing line between gritty actioner and slapstick comedy, and it’ll be interesting to see if modern audiences are game for a film with this kind of 80s action comedy tone.  Also, is it just me or has Schwarzenegger’s accent actually gotten worse since his tenure as Governator?

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Forest Whitaker, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzman, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez.  The Last Stand opens on January 18, 2013.

We owe our thanks to screenwriter/producer Chris Morgan (Wanted), whose passion for bringing Conan the Barbarian back to the big screen also managed to convince Arnold Schwarzenegger to reprise the role. In the end, it was Morgan’s description of The Legend of Conan, as more of a “cultural catch-up” than a reboot, that got the 65-year-old Schwarzenegger interested in the project. The veteran action star has already appeared in both The Expendables films after leaving office and will next star in Kim Jee-woon’s actioner The Last Stand, followed by David Ayer’s drug enforcement flick, Ten; but The Legend of Conan offers something more than just a return to his former action-hero glory. Hit the jump to see what Morgan has in store for The Legend of Conan.

Fans of the original action hero mash-up The Expendables are in for higher stakes, twice the explosions and more grizzled cast members in The Expendables 2, now available on Blu-ray. While the sequel managed to top the experience of the first film, the Blu-ray has plenty of extras to keep fans busy, including a commentary track by director Simon West (Con Air) that provides a lot of behind-the-scenes info. Want to know what weapons the Expendables used? Want to know how much bigger the sequel could have been? Want to see the real life Expendables the movie characters referenced? Well then hit the jump for my review of The Expendables 2 on Blu-ray.