While Arnold Schwarzenegger will always be known as one of the great action stars of a generation, he's also never been afraid to play against type and do comedy. His next film, Why We're Killing Gunther, will be his next effort in the genre, and it sounds hilarious. The project stars Arnold as the greatest assassin ever, the one that everybody else is gunning for. While that isn't necessarily an obvious comedy setup, it is being directed by Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam, so it certainly has the right person behind the camera.
Taran Killam spoke with Uproxx recently, and while much of the conversation was about how he will not be returning for the next season of Saturday Night Live, that's not really an issue for him, because he just started directing a new film with one of the biggest movie stars of all time. Why We're Killing Gunther sounds like the perfect Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy, as the description appears to blend both humor and action together into something right down the actor's ally. Killam likens the character of Gunther to another famous movie boogieman, only this time, people are gunning for him rather than scared of him.
He is Keyser Soze. He is the most mysterious, deadliest, incredible, and respected [assassin]. But, also, everybody hates him and is jealous of him because of how good he is. We've only shot two days with him and he's already so fucking funny. The footage is so great and he's totally game. There were things I was nervous to ask him to do, and he's like, 'I love it. Great. It's fucking hilarious.'
Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy has always been a little hit and miss. While he's done some decent to good work in movies like Twins or Kindergarten Cop, he's also done some, we'll say, less than stellar comedies as well, like Junior or Jingle All The Way. We haven't seen Schwarzenegger return to comedy since he came back to acting following his vacation as the governor of California. A sequel to Twins, entitled Triplets has been long rumored, but hasn't moved forward in some time.
Since Why We're Killing Gunther is coming from the mind of a Saturday Night Live alum, Taran Killam wrote the screenplay in addition to directing, we're going to assume that the film is more of a traditional comedy that will likely have some action elements, as opposed to something like True Lies that was an action film first, though it still had some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best comedy moments. Still, we're really looking forward to hearing, and seeing more about this one.
Do you have a favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy? Let us know in the comments. We promise not to judge you, too much.
