Movies
‘The Simpsons’ almost ruined Schwarzenegger’s career with one of his biggest failures
The makers of Schwarzenegger’s ‘Last Action Hero’ were heavily inspired by Bart Simpsons, and that almost ended the actor’s career.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest Hollywood stars who lived his golden age between the 80s and]d 90s, becoming one of the myths of action cinema thanks to roles such as those in Conan, The Terminator and other blockbusters like ‘Commando’, ‘Predator’ and ‘Total Recall’, among many others, in addition to daring to venture into comedy with ‘Twins’ and ‘Kindergarten Cop’. Although he also suffered some setbacks; and no, we are not talking about ‘Red Sonja’, considered by himself as his worst movie.
It was ‘Last Action Hero’ which against all odds failed miserably at the box office, a film that at the time was not entirely well understood that it parodied the action genre of the time. And it seems that ‘The Simpsons’ were partly to blame for the fact that this film by John McTiernan in 1993 was made.
‘The Simpsons’ and its influence on ‘Last Action Hero’
In an interview a few years ago, writers James Penn and Adam Leff -whose idea was further developed by Shane Black- recognized the influence of ‘The Simpsons’ in its plot, a new way of approaching popcorn action cinema that resulted in ‘Last Action Hero’: “We thought: ‘If this series can destroy genres while adopting them, Why can’t we do it in live action?’”, Penn recognized at the time.
Although the film stars Schwarzenegger in the role of action hero Jack Slate in what was a successful parody of his own films and career, its complicated production and rewrites ended up diluting the concept: “At some point, the film was lost”, added the scriptwriter, managing only $50 million at the US box office after passing through cinemas.
Not content with this, ‘The Simpsons’ recreated the failure of Schwarzenegger’s film with a completely cruel joke; in an episode of the show, Bart advised actor Rainier Wolfcastle -a parody of Schwarzenegger - that his last movie was very bad, to which the Hollywood star with an Austrian accent responds that it suffered man yscript changes, to which Police Chief Wiggum adds “Yeah, I’d say. Magic ticket my ass, McBain”, in clear reference to Arnie’s film.
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