True Lies 2 With or Without Cameron!
Abking's Friday Arnold Editorial!
Reported By: ABking
Saturday, January 14, 2006

My Lightstorm Entertainment spy says that James Cameron is not working on a sequel to TRUE LIES at the moment but if he decides not to continue the on-going adventures of Harry Tasker, Arnold can go solo like he did with TERMINATOR 3 and do the big budget sequel with another director. LIGHTSTORM ENTERTAINMENT would either still produce part 2 or give Schwarzenegger production reigns with his company OAK PRODUCTIONS (which produced Last Action Hero and Red Heat).

AB here, that isn't such a bad thing. While Jim Cameron is the best at crazy non-stop action scenes, True Lies can become a "different director" style franchise much like Mission:Impossible. There are plenty of great directors that would love to bring a super spy character to the screen.

Names that come to mind are John McTiernan, Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott, Renny Harlin, Richard Donner or Michael Bay. These directors would do Cameron justice and continue the charcter arc of Harry Tasker and Gibb (played by Tom Arnold).

I think if a TL2 were to get made (after Arnold leaves governorship) the story should focus on only Harry Tasker (with the help of Gibb) on his deadly missions with new females in his life! Let me explain myself! Jamie Lee Curtis is too old now to be Helen "the super spy babe" we all saw at the end of True Lies so why would we want her to slow Arnie down with her age. True Lies films would call for crazy action scenes and over-the-top stunt work!

If Helen is written out with a death scene or she and Harry got divorced over the hard years of spy work and deadly missions---always witnessing sexy females coming on to Harry---then TL2 could work. Other wise, a sequel would not work with Arnie and older Jamie Lee running around like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Of course Arnie can pull it off since he's still super fit and can still do stunts with the likes of stars like Tom "Mr. stuntman" Cruise.

Tom Arnold and Arnie are perfect together and could continue True Lies into a TRUE LIES 2 & TRUE LIES 3, which would give Arnie his new franchise outside of Terminator and Conan. All they would need is a new hot babe to flirt with Harry in each new sequel and a fresh director. True Lies grossed 146 million domestic and 378 million worldwide, so a sequel MUST be made! Plus Gibb said "next time you're in the van Harry" at the end of True Lies.

To finish off my editorial, I want James "the man" Cameron to direct or even produce part 2, but if my Lightstorm spy is right and I had to choose a new director, it would be Paul Verhoeven. He and Arnie have not made another film together but Total Recall.

Hollywood loves when a director and a star have blockbuster history together (Total Recall grossed 119 million domestic and 264 million worldwide) and loves it when that same star and director re-team again to score magic again. Verhoeven and Arnie never got to make CRUSADE together so maybe TRUE LIES 2 would suit them well!