As a resident Californian, watching Arnold Schwarzenegger become elected governor was frustrating. Politically frustrating, yes, but if I can level with you, I was more frustrated that his rise in politics has going to kill any possibility of John Milius’ King Conan. Sigh. Well, since then there has been much speculation as to whether Ah’nuld would return to his film career after he was done playing governor. Why there was any speculation here, I don’t know. He can’t become president. He was in The Expendables while he was still serving. Of course he was going to return. The only thing that can stop him from returning is death.

ComingSoon (that page is dead for some reason) is reporting, via a translation from the Austrian site, Krone.at, that Arnold is circling three different projects:

“Currently I’m reading three scripts. One topic/script, which I considered a long time ago before governor, is delighting me particularly. In it I would play an older [German] soldier, who gets the order at the ending of the war to kill a bunch of kids. But he doesn’t do it and get them to safety at the risk of his life and it has all kind of adventure. This script is based on a true story!“

That script is titled With Wings As Eagles, and seems like a logical choice for the old horse at this point. The other two projects remain a mystery, though I have to wonder where the possible The Expendables 2 fits in. At the press junket for The Mechanic, Jason Statham seemed very confident that the sequel was going to happen in 2011, and we’ve heard the rumors that the film may feature a story where Stallone’s character is forced to team up with his old rival, Arnold, on a joint effort.

For me, Arnold is similar to The Simpsons at this point. He was a seminal part of my formative years, and I still love his golden era, but the later portion of his career doesn’t do anything for me. And kind of depresses me, as far as witnessing the chasm of quality differential. Yet, the world just hasn’t seemed right these past years without him popping up in some junky action-thriller or stupid family comedy, so I welcome him back with open arms. The existence of the upcoming Jason Momoa Conan The Barbarian all but assures that we’ll never get the Milius/Arnold King Conan, but a boy can dream.