Schwarzenegger muscles into TV with Venice Beach drama ‘Pump’

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s formative years, spent soaking up the sun in a Venice Beach gym and packing on the muscles that fuelled the most successful competitive bodybuilding career in history, will inspire a TV series.

Pump, an 8-episode hour-long drama, will be produced by Schwarzenegger, Emmett/Furla/Oasis CEOs Randall Emmett and George Furla, and The Tannenbaum Company CEO Eric Tannenbaum.

Created by Michael Konyves, Pump is loosely based on the Venice Beach exploits of Schwarzenegger, when he was then known not as the Governator, but rather as the Austrian Oak.

The series is set in 1973, as a small group of bodybuilders birthed the physical fitness industry and body worship, in the Pacific Avenue beachfront gym that was their temple. While fitness is now a multi-billion dollar industry, back then Schwarzenegger and his brawny pals were viewed as being freakishly muscular.

Despite having the best bodies in the world, most bodybuilders were broke. That didn’t mean they didn’t have fun, living a life of hedonism and adventure in 1970s Southern California.

Schwarzenegger won the Mr. Olympia title seven times and stole the show in the seminal documentary Pumping Iron, before fulfilling the American immigrant rags to riches dream as the action star of films ranging from Terminator to Predator and True Lies, and then California State Governor.