Heat Vision is
reporting that Bill Nighy is in negotiations to join the cast of Total Recall as “Quatto” . Colin Farrell will star as Douglas Quaid.
The names are about all that sounds familiar with the film. Loosely based on the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, the 1990 adaptation saw Arnold Schwarzenegger as a man who desperately wants to visit Mars. Unable to afford the actual trip he visits a company called Recall Inc. that promises to give him the next best thing- the memory of going there. From that moment on you’re never sure what exactly is real or just his memory, as he gets involved in fighting for the freedom of the oppressed Martian colonists.
In this new version Mars doesn’t appear at all, although it does seem to be set in the future. In this Total Recall there are two major nation-states in the world, Euromerica and New Shanghai. Farrell is a factory worker in New Shanghai who begins to believe that he’s a spy but is unaware of who he’s actually working for, and for what purpose.
It would be interesting to see the decisions that led to them dropping the location, since the remake was more famous for that than anything else… except perhaps for that mutant hooker with three breasts.
Len Wiseman, director of the Underworld films that Nighy starred in and man that ruined the Die Hard series, will direct. Bryan Cranston will fill the Cohaagen role, and Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel will play the female leads. No word on how many breasts will appear between the two. Ethan Hawke is also on board for a cameo.
As for Nighy, the great British actor will be playing Quatto, but don’t worry about seeing him stuck in another man’s (a dead man’s?) chest. Whereas in the original Kuato was a half-formed mutant twin, this Quatto will just be a man.
Filming starts Monday in Toronto. Recall the past: