On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, Harry at AICN posted an exclusive report that came to him from an extremely reliable source saying that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be making a cameo in “The Expendables.”
Harry said that Arnold would “shooting for one day” playing himself “and it seems that the Gov and Sly’s character Barney Ross have some history back when the Gov was shooting Conan the Barbarian!” Harry concluded the post with: “So there you have it. Sly and Arnie are both in this film. I’d take this to the bank, I have a really good (ahem) source (ahem) on this!
Websites all over the world lit up with news that Arnold would finally appear on film alongside Sly.
Then, less than 24 hours later, Harry was back saying:
“Hey folks, Harry here… It seems there’s a possibility that my source was a bit too exuberant about the certainty of Arnold Schwarzenegger signing aboard. The whole thing is very dependent upon what happens with Arnold’s primary gig as the Governor of California… My source also tells me if this miracle does come to pass you’ll find Arnie not as the Governor, but as something a bit more gritty, scarred and brutalized.
So, where does that leave us? We’ve gone from a sure thing [“take it to the bank”] to what sounds as highly unlikely [“if this miracle does come to pass”]. Still, fans have been waiting for years for the pairing and “The Expendables” seems like the perfect project to make it happen. I especially like the sound of the change from Arnie playing himself to something more “gritty, scarred and brutalized.”
Time will tell, but I do have my fingers crossed.
