The news this morning that Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly thinking about bringing his political career to an end once his term as Governor of California comes to end in 2010 has inevitably sparked speculation that he would be returning to the world of the movies. This year, after all, he's appeared (in a cheating way) in Terminator Salvation, and he's also filmed a cameo in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables.

But were Arnie to return to the big screen proper, which project should he be looking to tackle? Here are our top six suggestions...

Crusades

If there's one lost Arnie project from the past that we'd love to see resurrected and brought back to life, it's Crusades. This was the film that he was due to make with his Total Recall director, Paul Verhoeven. The project, which Schwarzenegger apparently owns the rights to, was set to be a Middle Ages hack and slash epic, with a little bit of Conan to it, but its price tag forced Carolco out of making it.

The film has bounced around since, with the occasional rumour that it's been brought back to life. Sadly, time has likely made the project even more expensive, and the problem that Schwarzenegger faces is that he couldn't get someone to foot the bill in the 1990s when his star was at its peak. Unless he could somehow get a major current box office draw on board, we doubt the Arnie name could attract the money all be itself any more. How times have changed...

True Lies 2

There was  a real franchise opportunity for the character of Harry Tasker, the man with a double life that Arnie brought to life in James Cameron's action-comedy (well, it made us laugh a lot), True Lies.

Seemingly usurping the territory previously stalked by James Bond, True Lies looked like the building blocks for a new spy franchise. And then James Cameron went off to make Titanic for a long time, and by the time he emerged from that, Oscars in hand, his thirst for a sequel had seemingly been dampened. He then apparently dropped the project altogether post the September 11^th attacks.

In the years since, the Bourne movies have demonstrated that it's possible to breathe fresh life into the genre once more, and we'd love to see Cameron cutting loose with Schwarzenegger on a movie set once more. They are the Scorsese-De Niro union of action cinema, and a fourth collaboration - it doesn't have to be True Lies 2 - would be a real treat. We fear, though, that it'll never happen.

Terminator: Salvation 2

Whatever you think of McG's Terminator movie, the way that it shoehorned in the return of Arnie was just a little bit clumsy. Our thinking is this: if you're going to have Arnie in a Terminator film, then do it properly. And if Salvation does get a follow-up of sorts, which is almost inevitable given the huge amount of money the Terminator rights are to be auctioned off for (it won't necessarily be a direct sequel, of course), then we urge whoever's making the movie to make a decision: either include Arnie, or don't. We're happy for him to be in a side role, rather than the star attraction. But don't cheat. Get the man in front of the camera again, or move on.

Predators cameo

Believe the reports, and there's room for a bit of Dutch in the script of the currently-filming Predators movie. We can't imagine this will happen, though, given that Arnie's political commitments take him to the end of 2010, and that the film is out next summer. But what about a further Predator movie beyond that? Or lending the AvP movies a touch of class? It's a long shot, but we'd love to see it...

Sgt Rock

Expendables has shown the way. In the late 80s/early 90s, Sgt Rock was a project mooted to bring together Arnie, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis in a major action movie. Granted, the three are finally sharing a scene in the aforementioned The Expendables, but a full motion picture based on the DC comic book? That had the potential to be amazing.

Again, the odds aren't great now, not least because Sgt Rock has been picked up for development elsewhere. Francis Lawrence is attached to direct (following his work on Constantine and I Am Legend), and a release date of 2012 is mooted. It's unlikely he'll look for such a showcase cast as was suggested nearly two decades ago.

A Tarantino movie

Once or twice we closed our eyes in the midst of Inglourious Basterds and figured this was the kind of film where Arnie could walk in, shoot some people, and walk out again. Given that Quentin Tarantino is the kind of director resurrecting people's acting careers, could he perhaps lend some of his magic dust to The Governator? Perhaps find some room for him in Kill Bill 3? Admit it: you'd pay to watch it...

Add your suggestions below...!