It's safe to say you're going to see a little flurry of Arnold Schwarzenegger related activity here in the next week or so.

Makes sense.  He's got his first starring role in a while coming out on the 18th, and Lionsgate is doing everything they can to create some attention for the movie.  Since this is his return to leading roles, there is a fair amount of natural excitement out there among movie fans.  I watched first-hand as Arnold turned a group of journalists who are used to meeting movie stars the vapors at an event on Friday, and I'll have more on that for you later tonight.

First, though, I wanted to share a brief clip from the interview I did with Arnold yesterday.  He was paired with Johnny Knoxville, and yes, that's just as strange in the room as it is on a poster.  We talked about "The Last Stand" for most of the conversation, but I couldn't help but make one quick digression right at the end of things.

After all, "Conan The Barbarian" is one of my favorite films.  Not just one of my favorite Arnold films, but one of my favorite films of any genre starring anyone.  I think it's sort of remarkable, and one of the best afternoons I've spent was in the office of John Milius, where I got to ask him anything I wanted about the film, listening to story after story.  The 10,000th story at Ain't It Cool was my piece on "King Conan: Crown Of Iron," the sequel that Milius was going to make with the Wachowskis producing, and it still pains me that the film didn't quite come together in the end.

So as we started to reach the end of the interview time, I had to bring up the prospect of Arnold returning to the role, especially since we were already talking about how age plays an important part in "The Last Stand," and it seems like any attempt to return to the character of Conan is going to have to address that fact as well.  You can see his response above.

We'll have the full interview closer to release, and we'll have more about the tank ride with Arnold and a review of the film itself, so keep checking back.

"The Last Stand" opens January 18th in theaters everywhere.

Drew McWeeny
Film Editor

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A respected critic and commentator for fifteen years, Drew McWeeny helped create the online film community as "Moriarty" at Ain't It Cool News, and now proudly leads two budding Film Nerds in their ongoing movie education.