Often you’ll see remakes pitched as “re-adaptations” or “re-imaginings” by filmmakers who claim that the use of a brand is really just empowering them to reinterpret a source material that another old film used. Total Recall is such a film, though it seems as if it will be more of a mushy amalgam of the Phillip K. Dick source story and Verhoeven’s very loose adaptation.
This is suggested by a synopsis dug up by Geektyrant, which has completely dropped any mention of Mars and focuses instead on the reality/memory bending aspect of the action story…
“Total Recall” is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he’s got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life – real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world – Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.
The footage shown at last year’s Comic Con certainly raised some eyebrows for this film, which is coming from Len Wiseman, director of zzzzzzzzz and zzzzzzzzz: Evolution and Live zzzzzzz Or Die ZZZZZZZZ. I’m hoping to see that footage (or something like it) soon, since Wiseman has in no way convinced me that awesome guys like Bryan Cranston or Bill Nighy will in any way save this Collin Ferrell / Kate Beckinsale vehicle if it’s otherwise bland and bad. The footage was very well receive though, so I’m happy to see what they’ve got to show.
Ultimately the Verhoeven classic won’t be marred by this remake and if this brand is being used to sneak out an interesting and original sci-fi film, then I’m all for it. It’s a good sign that that this story is going somewhere entirely different from the 1990 flick, but now it’s time to actually see some of these differences. With this scheduled for release on August 3rd of this year, I can’t imagine it will be too long before we get a teaser at least.
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via /Film