'True Lies 2': Truer Lies

The New York Times wrote a piece on Tom Arnold a few days ago — god knows why — in which he discussed his stand-up career, giving Judd Apatow his first big break, and future movie projects that he has on the horizon [ed. he has projects on the horizon??] In the interview, Arnold teased a sequel to the… errr, ’90s “classic” action household comedy, “True Lies.” Or maybe sarcasm doesn’t translate well in print.

“All I know is Jim Cameron’s making it and Arnold’ — Mr. Schwarzenegger — ‘and I are going to be in it, and it starts shooting in 14 months, the day after Arnold stops being governor of California,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to be called ‘True Lies II,’ but it might as well be. I can live with that.”

The Internets briefly got their hopes up, but Cameron took a break from his “Avatar” schedule to respond to an email from aintitcool.com, shooting down Arnold’s talk as just jest. “I think Tom was joking,” he said. “There are no plans for a True Lies 2. I’m always down for a good action/comedy …since September 11, I’ve never felt comfortable generating laughs with nuke-toting Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. True Lies, even though it has a cautionary thread underneath the pratfalls, is in a strange way a product of a more innocent time. Tom… he’s a good friend and a very funny guy.”

This would be one of the most unnecessary sequels since ‘The Scorpion King 2.’ It appears that Tom is trying to publicly push for a sequel even though no one else really cares or just trying to get his name back on the radar. This is the most press he’s received in years, so maybe it worked ever-so slightly. Good thing Cameron denied this one before it could gain any momentum. Thank you Mr. Cameron. Seriously. Thank you. [NYTimes]