Exclusive: Schwarzenegger Talks Conan, Running Man 2, Terminator & Directing!

TheArnoldFans just got back from an "Evening with Arnold Schwarzenegger," a black tie event at the Centenary Pavilion in Leeds which connected fans to the world's greatest action hero and fitness motivator. Hundreds of us paid big bucks to have the opportunity to be in the same elegant ballroom and listen to Schwarzenegger talk about his life, achievements and "advices!" Many of us paid a little extra for a meet-and-greet and photo opportunity. Paul Jackson, UK reporter for TheArnoldFans, not only got his photo with his mentor, he brings us the long-awaited update on Arnold's films, The Running Man 2, Conan and even a project he'd like to direct! 

Arnold took some time to pose with our very own Paul Jackson and brings us big movie news! First up: CONAN!

Schwarzenegger: "It is the greatest honor to be 67 years old and to still be asked to come back into all those franchises. Whether it is the Terminator movie or it is now Conan, it is fantastic! As a matter of fact, when I get back to Los Angeles, i'll be getting the final script and then I will see it for the first time. But with Universal Pictures, I've tried to convince them now for 20 years to go back and continue with the Conan series and they were not as enthusiastic as I was. But then later, new management came in at Universal and they saw it entirely differently. They came to me right away and said they want to pick up the Conan series and to look at some writers and let's get going on that. So we've been working on Conan and I'm really excited to be working on this - to do another Conan movie and hopefully it will be soon!"

The Legend of Conan should in fact be Arnold's next film. Fredrik Malmberg, producer of the film, recently told TheArnoldFans that Universal Pictures loves the new script. 

It may also be time for Arnold to start running again as Ben Richards!

Schwarzenegger: "People loved the movie. I loved the idea, It is like the Hunger Games, it's that kind of idea. I think that now, if someone writes it (a Running Man sequel) really well, it can be an extraordinary movie. I hope that no one decides to do that movie without me. I would really love to pick it up and continue on where we left off and be the Running Man."

Arnold spoke about having just finished work on Terminator: Genisys and how happy and proud he is to have returned to the Terminator role but It was brought up that Terminator Salvation was a miss with the fans and critics. Schwarzenegger hinted that franchises don’t do well when the studios continue making those movies without him.

Schwarzenegger: "People try to do movies without me and then they wipe out. It’s like you know with Conan, I was Governor at that time, so they couldn’t really hire me because I couldn’t really work and do movies. In an ideal world it would have been great if I really would have been a machine, I could’ve worked at night and did the movies and in the daytime ran the state of California, the eighth largest economy in the world. But that’s not reality right? The reality was that I had to kind of work for the people, I made the promise that I would represent the eight million people in California and it was the greatest job that I’ve ever had. So therefore, I couldn’t take on the challenge of doing Conan or to do Terminator, which was also done during that time. But you know, just recently they did a remake of Total Recall without me (crowd boos, Arnold laughs). EXACTLY! You’re the reaction! I think that certain franchises can’t be done without certain actors.But at the same time, I think what’s interesting about this is, and not to change the subject, but I have been asked to do certain movies. And then I did not agree to do the movies because of some reason or the other. Face Off for instance ended up with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, it was a highly successful movie and I was sitting at home and I said “DAMMIT, WHY DIDN’T I DO THE MOVIE!”. So there were situations like that, I remember the Count of Monte Cristo, I just couldn’t figure out how I could change my accent and my body to look different in the end. So I said you know, I’m not going to do the movie. And it was a very successful movie. And The Rock, with Nicholas Cage and with Sean Connery, they came to me and the Producer came to me with kind of like eighty pages. Scripts are usually about a hundred and twenty pages, so they came with eighty pages and a lot of hand written scribbling on it and he was like shaking and he was kind of like weird acting. And I said to myself, you know something, why don’t you come back with the finished script and then we’ll talk about it. Well the son of a gun went out and got Nicholas Cage to make the movie, a highly successful movie, so I was pissed off about that too! So it had been the other way around too. So there were a lot of movies that I turned down that actually turned out to be very successful but with the other actors and I have to say that the other actors did an extraordinary job in those movies."

Finally, we bring you news on Ahnuld wanting to direct!

Schwarzenegger: "Maybe down the line, I will get back to directing again and direct something that i'm very passionate about. As a matter of fact, there is a movie I've always wanted to do about Eugen Sandow.  Eugen Sandow was the very first strongman who was really muscular."

We'll report more on other topics Schwarzenegger covered soon so stick around!  Only a few tickets might remain if you want to attend the "Evening with Arnold Schwarzenegger" in London tonight!  Click HERE for ticket info!