There’s a True Lies TV show in the works with James Cameron executive producing through his Lightstorm Entertainment banner, and the pilot is set to be directed by McG, who helmed the only Terminator movie that didn’t feature Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of the cast. Meanwhile, the action icon is locked in to headline a globetrotting spy series in his first ever major TV role, and yet somehow the two projects aren’t connected.
Only in Hollywood could an episodic show based on one of Schwarzenegger’s best films be in development at the exact same time that the actor is tackling a similar series set in exactly the same genre, but that’s the way the world works, and Cameron’s involvement in CBS’ True Lies is probably going to be tokenistic at best given that he’s busy on Pandora for the foreseeable future. There’s no guarantee the pilot will even get a full season order, either, especially when there’s so much small screen espionage already on offer and as a full blown reboot, it likely won’t involve many ties to the 1994 blockbuster, if any.
Of course, True Lies 2 is one of those sequels that should of happened but never did, with Cameron busying himself with Titanic right after, and by the time he got around to even considering a second installment, the filmmaker had decided that he had no interest in making an action comedy centered on global terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11.
At various points over the decades, Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis have all explained why True Lies 2 never materialized, but insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that it’s back in development and will be separate from the TV show. Unfortunately, the tipster offers no further details, but with 27 years having passed since the original, it’ll be interesting to see just how much of an appetite there’ll be for it.
