Schwarzenegger’s Spy Action Drama Series Lands At Netflix
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s currently untitled spy-thriller series with Skydance Television from the creator of ‘Scorpion’, Nick Santora, looks to be heading to Netflix according to reports today.
The original hourlong spy adventure series, which will be Schwarzenegger’s first foray into scripted tv drama, centres around a father, played by Schwarzenegger, and his daughter, played by Monica Barbaro (‘Stumptown’, ‘Chicago P.D./Justice’, ‘UnREAL’). According to Deadline, who broke the news, Netflix is finalising a deal with Skydance which would see the series head into development with a script-to-series commitment (i.e. if Netflix like the scripts, there is no need to make a pilot.)
The series has been created by Nick Santora, probably best known as the creator of action drama series ‘Scorpion’, which ran for 4 Seasons. Since then, he EPed and created the Emmy-nominated Quibi drama ‘Most Dangerous Game’ starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, along with recent ‘The Fugitive’ series starring Kiefer Sutherland and Boyd Holbrook, also for (the now-defunct) Quibi. Prior to that, he wrote on tv and film such as ‘Vegas’, ‘Prison Break’, and the ‘Punisher: War Zone’ movie. In addition to this series, Santora is also exec producer and showrunner on Amazon Prime’s upcoming series adaptation of Lee Child’s ‘Jack Reacher’ novels, starring ‘Titans’ Alan Ritchson.
Schwarzenegger, who returned to acting following his tenure as Governor of California, most recently reprised his role as the T-800 in ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’, and is next due to play The President in David Sandberg’s martial arts comedy ‘Kung Fury II: The Movie’. He is also signed on to reteam with Danny DeVito in an upcoming sequel to the film ‘Twins’ called ‘Triplets’, which adds Eddie Murphy as the third sibling. In addition to that, he is set to play a Marshall in Amazon’s upcoming cowboy event series ‘Outrider’, which is set in the late 1800s Oklahoma Indian Territory.
Monica Barbaro, you may know as Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Anna Valdez in the ‘Chicago’ franchise, or as the ex-girlfriend of Jake Johnson’s Grey McConnell in ABC’s, sadly cancelled, drama ‘Stumptown’ starring Cobie Smulders. Prior to that, she appeared in Season 2 of Marti Noxon’s fantastic drama ‘UnREAL’, and short-lived Netflix dramedy ‘The Good Cop’ starring Josh Groban and Tony Danza. She is next due to pop up in the much anticipated ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ opposite Tom Cruise.
Schwarzenegger himself has a long relationship with Skydance, who were the people behind the ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ and ‘Terminator Genisys’, along with a number of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films, ‘True Grit’, ‘World War Z’ and the aforementioned ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. On the TV side, they were behind ‘Altered Carbon’, ‘Condor’, and ‘Jack Ryan’, along with the upcoming Apple TV+ series ‘Foundation’ based on the Isaac Asimov novel series.
The currently untitled Schwarzenegger spy adventure series is currently classed as “in development”, but we’ll let you know if and when we hear more!
