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Arnold Schwarzenegger on Technology
Republican CA Governor
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1988 royalty deal changed way film industry operates
In 1988, Ivan Reitman was [producing a movie] about a perfect physical specimen who discovers that his twin is a short, stocky small-time crook. The studio, Universal, was extremely nervous about the idea of starring somebody like Schwarzenegger in a
high-budget comedy.So Schwarzenegger worked on the picture for no money up front. But in lieu of a salary, they split a percentage of the box office receipts from the first dollar--an unheard-of arrangement that would allow the picture to be made for
measly sum of $15.5 million. If the film was a dad, Universal would be protected. If it was a hit, the director and his two stars would clean up.
Arnold ended up with 17.5% of the film's $110 million gross, the most anybody had ever made on a single
film until that point. When his fellow stars heard how he had fared, many of them insisted on a similar arrangement for their next film, initiating a complex financing system that has permanently changed the way the film industry operates.
Source: The Governator, by Ian Halperin, p.208-209
, Oct 12, 2010
Teamed with Gov. Rendell on "Building America's Future"
Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell in 2008 teamed up with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to form Building America's Future (BAF), a bipartisan coalition looking, in
Rendell's words, to "deliver a message to Washington that if America is going to have a future, an economically viable future, a quality-of-life future, a future that involves public safety, we have to begin the business of repairing infrastructure."
In a February 2010 speech at an economic conference, Rendell warned, "If we don't do something quickly, by the time 2030 rolls around, America will be a second-rate economic power." Telling the businessmen in the room that "nothing significant
will change until the businessmen step up and say, 'Guys, we're having the living daylights beaten out of us. If we don't do something quickly, we're sunk--we're a cooked goose.'"
Source: Third World America, by Arianna Huffington, p. 97
, Sep 2, 2010
Infrastructure should be a top priority
I am for Proposition 53. I think it’s a good beginning. But the fact of the matter is that we need a lot of infrastructure here in California.
Infrastructure with the highways and with the transportation, the railroads, infrastructure with our water supply, infrastructure with our ports. We need that. We should model ourselves after Texas.
In Texas, they’ve committed $140 billion for infrastructure. They are going to start now with building 4,000 miles of transportation, railway, freeways, highways and all those kinds of things.
They have already taken the position we were first in export, now it’s Texas is first in export, because they are really aggressive, it seems. That’s what California ought to do.
Source: Recall Debate, Cal. State Univ. at Sacramento
, Sep 24, 2003
Page last updated: Apr 27, 2013
