True Lies TV Series Casts Someone Who Is Not Arnold Schwarzenegger In The Lead Role
If you watched Fox's "Lethal Weapon" TV series and thought, "I would like to see another '80s or '90s action movie rebooted on network television with a different star," then you are in luck. A new version of James Cameron's 1994 film, "True Lies," has been ordered to pilot at CBS. Cameron will serve as executive producer, but one person who won't be involved is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who starred in the original blockbuster with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Variety reports that Steve Howey ("Shameless," "Reba") will take on the role of Harry, the "benign, play-it-safe, seemingly risk-averse computer salesman and devoted family man, married with two kids," who is secretly "an undercover operative, a first-class spy working for a covert U.S. Intelligence organization."
This is the role Schwarzenegger played in 1994. Variety also notes that, "like the film, Harry's unfulfilled suburban wife 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."
There's no word yet on who will step in to fill the other main Curtis role as Harry's wife, Helen. Matt Nix, the creator of USA's "Burn Notice" — and, more recently, Fox's X-Men-related series, "The Gifted" — will write and executive produce the "True Lies" pilot. This summer, Nix launched the Disney+ reboot, "Turner & Hooch," a series that prompted The Guardian to ask, "Shouldn't we let sleeping dogs lie?" You could ask the same question of this "True Lies" TV reboot.
Should We Let Sleeping "Lies" Lie?
The last time Cameron directed Schwarzenegger, his two-time "Terminator" star, was in "True Lies." In 2019, Schwarzenegger and Curtis reunited for the first time in two and a half decades to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "True Lies." The film remains memorable for moments like Schwarzenegger riding an elevator on horseback, Curtis performing a striptease for him as he sits in the shadows, and a climactic action scene with them and a helicopter on the Overseas Highway between the Florida Keys and Key West. The late Bill Paxton, another frequent Cameron collaborator, also left an impression as a slimy car salesman.
The question is, do we really need a "True Lies" TV reboot, and is anyone asking for this, or is Hollywood just scraping the bottom of the barrel for old products to repackage and market as new? It's been years since I watched the film, but personally, if I wanted to revisit the world of "True Lies," I'd be more inclined to just rewatch the movie.
There might very well be some fans, however, who are excited by this news and looking forward to watching the new "True Lies" on television. Hollywood's reboot-o-tron lives by the saying, "Everything old becomes new again." This isn't the first time Fox has tried to resurrect "True Lies;" as Variety observes, it "gave a series version of the project a put pilot commitment back in 2017."
That version never crystallized as an actual series, so we'll have to wait and see if this one fares any better, and then, you'll be able to judge for yourself whether "True Lies" was worth rebooting.