Chalk this up as another YAR – as in Yet Another Reboot. This time it’s to be helmed by Len Wiseman. His most recent feature was Live Free or Die Hard. You may have seen it. It’s the one that had no “Yippie ki-yay, motherf—er!” because it was PG-13. When Bruce Willis can’t deliver his signature phrase in all of its glory, what’s the point. Sure, his character isn’t all curse words, but that’s his calling card. It would be like Arnie not being able to say “Hasta la vista, baby” because the studio wouldn’t want to cause controversy by having an Austrian speak Spanish.
Now Wiseman is setting his sights on helming a reboot of Total Recall. According to Deadline, the new Total Recall will be a contemporized adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s short story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” Kurt Wimmer, fresh off his screenwriting duties for Salt, is handling the writing duties for the reboot and wish-he-could-be Jerry Bruckheimer Neal H. Moritz (The Fast and the Furious franchise, xXx) will produce.
About doing the reboot, Wiseman said, “I’ve always been fascinated with Philip K. Dick’s short story, and I’m excited at that prospect of diving even deeper into the type of world it evokes and the questions it asks. I love that the most crucial mystery our character is trying to solve is the one of his own soul.”
Wiseman’s decision to direct Total Recall will come as a blow to Fox. The studio had hoped that Wiseman would return and direct Die Hard 5. At this year’s Comic-Con, Bruce Willis was quoted as saying he’d love to do another with Wiseman, after their collaboration on Live Free or Die Hard put vigor back into that franchise.
The Buzz: I have no idea how dissimilar Philip K. Dick’s short story and Paul Verhoeven’s film are from each other. But Verhoeven’s Total Recall still holds up remarkably well. It is the second in the director’s Propoganda Trilogy, as I refer it as, nestled between RoboCop and Starship Troopers. It’s a fun action movie with Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside and Marshall Bell as Quato. That’s just about as cool as “Mr. Oatmeal” Wilford Brimley in John Carpenter’s The Thing. Don’t really have a desire to see it at this point. But I’ll keep an open mind when it comes to casting. Though, if I hear that Adrien Brody is playing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s part I may just go FTS.
