The fifth Terminator movie is slowly but surely chugging along.  Contrary to recent belief, it turns out that Terminator 5 won't have to use a digital Arnold Schwarzenegger like Terminator: Salvation, since the former bodybuilder and two-term California Governor will indeed play the T-800 again.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back!

The legendary action-star left Hollywood to become the Governor of California almost a decade ago and now finally returns to the big screen with The Last Stand, which opens in theaters on January 18th. 

The former-Governator appeared in a minor role in his friend Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables and The Expendables 2, respectively, but has not starred in a major movie since ‘2003s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. However, the actor has stayed very busy since resigning from politics having shot the upcoming film The Tomb, also co-starring Stallone, and toying with the idea of returning to two of his most successful franchises with new installments of Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, as well as Triplets, which is the proposed sequel to Twins co-starring Danny DeVito. 

But first Arnold can bee seen doing what he does best … kicking ass in The Last Stand. The new film, which was helmed by South Korean director Jee-Woon Kim (I Saw the Devil), stars Schwarzenegger as the Sheriff of a Mexican boarder town who must defend his community from a dangerous drug cartel leader (Eduardo Noriega) on the run from the FBI and trying to escape to Mexico. In addition to Schwarzenegger, the film also boasts an impressive cast of supporting actors including Johnny Knoxville (The Dukes of Hazzard), Rodrigo Santoro (There Be Dragons), Jaimie Alexander (Thor: The Dark World), Luis Guzman (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), Zach Gilford (Answers to Nothing), Peter Stormare (Dylan Dog: Dead of Night), Harry Dean Stanton (The Avengers), Genesis Rodriguez (Casa di Mi Padre), and Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker (A Dark Truth).   

I recently had the pleasure of attending a press conference for The Last Stand, along with several other members of the press, and had a chance to hear what Arnold Schwarzenegger had to say about his new film, his big screen comeback, leaving politics behind, doing action scenes at his age, working with director Jee-Woon Kim, the Newtown tragedy, and his advice to Congress. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a movie star. 

Actors disappear into their characters and the world of their films.  Riding their charisma, movie stars dictate both and are, to a certain extent, themselves onscreen.  The almost eight years Schwarzenegger spent as the improbable Governor of California meant that he was limited exclusively to brief cameo roles, but now that his gubernatorial tenure is over and he's kept his head low after a public scandal, Arnold Schwarzenegger is once again properly starring in action movies.

In The Last Stand, Schwarzenegger plays a small town sheriff who wrangles the town's eccentrics to stop a wanted drug lord from making it to the U.S./Mexico border.  IAR's Jami Philbrick participated in the movie's press conference, and we'll have plenty more The Last Stand goodies coming your way closer to its January 18th release.  Today, we're looking further into the future.  While promoting his first cinematic vehicle since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Schwarzenegger shed some light on his new Conan adventure, the Twins sequel Triplets, and even the possibility of teaming up with fellow muscle-mountain Dwayne Johnson.