The latest film to be adapted for TV is set, as James Cameron's 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger flick True Lies heads to the Disney+ streaming service. Love him or hate him, Schwarzenegger remains one of the biggest movie stars of all time. He also has no trouble shrugging off flying kicks from crazed fans, but that's beside the point. Schwarzenegger has starred in some of the most popular action films ever, including The Terminator, Terminator 2, Predator, and Total Recall. While it's not quite at that level of fan following, many also have fond memories of True Lies.

Directed by a pre-"King of the World" James Cameron, True Lies starred Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, who is, on the surface, a mild-mannered family man that just happens to be built like a tank. In reality, Harry is really a spy for a US counter-terrorism organization dubbed Omega Sector. Harry's marriage to wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) has grown stale, leading him to use his spy skills for a little revenge after believing her to be having an affair. It turns out she wants adventure, and she gets it when her and Harry are kidnapped by nuke-wielding terrorists.

True Lies earned mostly good reviews from critics and was the third-highest grossing film of 1994, but it's kind of faded in regard a bit in the decades since, and has curiously never even been released on Blu-Ray disc, confining it to the standard definition realm on home video. Yet, apparently True Lies is seen as a big enough brand to merit being adapted into a TV series for the upcoming streaming service Disney+. According to Collider, oddly named filmmaker McG is currently writing the project, and revealed that it was moving forward during a recent interview.


This Disney+ True Lies series seems to be the same project first reported on here back in 2017, which was stated to have McG directing, and James Cameron himself executive producing. Arrow's Marc Guggenheim was supposed to write the script, but if McG says he's writing it, perhaps that changed along the way. The project was originally setup with 20th Century Fox, although there hasn't been a peep about it since the initial announcement it was being developed. Since Disney now owns Fox, it makes sense they might want to take advantage of the property.

It's unclear at present if True Lies will take place in the same universe as the Cameron film, or instead completely reboot the property. When asked, McG told Collider that the script is largely a reboot, but that the door is open for Schwarzenegger to participate, should he want to and there be a place for him in the story. One assumes this offer might also extend to Curtis, Eliza Dushku, or other original cast members, should they also be game. That said, considering Disney's family-friendly content mandate for Disney+, it's a bit odd that they're choosing to adapt an R-rated action film, as such an adaptation would seemingly be more at home on the also Disney-owned Hulu.