Having labeled the 1990 sci-fi Total Recall “cheesy,” it was only a matter of time before the makers of this summer’s lackluster Colin Farrell-starring remake had the tables turned on them by Paul Verhoeven, the original film’s director.
And so, Friday at a sold-out screening of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Verhoeven seized the opportunity for a little payback, a good-natured gleam in his eye. “Colin Farrell called it in an interview ‘kitschy,’” he declared with a smile. “So I dare to say that his version was not good.” more »
Late last week, the box office prognosticators speculated whether The Dark Knight Rises would eek out a triumph over newcomer Total Recall. The pendulum would swing in either direction as the weekend approached, but in the end TDKR easily beat out Total by every measure. In fact, the film only really managed to measure-up to its original, but in 2012 dollars
more »
Also in Friday morning's round-up of news briefs, Warner Bros is eyeing Russell Crowe as it considers Stephen King project. Terrence Howard is set to play a hustler in a new pic, while a Game of Thrones star is joining an all-star cast in The Counselor and more.
more »
Jessica Biel likes to play her action heroes with a touch of femininity. Movieline pal Grace Randolph hit a special New York screening of Total Recall on Thursday night and chatted with the actress on the red carpet. Biel plays the resistance fighter Melina and asked what quality she likes to bring to her action roles, tells Randolph that she aims to portray a character "who feels like a real woman," not "someone who's so tough that you can relate to [her] but someone who is feminine and has an emotional arc as well as a physical arc. more »
At one point, Kate Beckinsale remembers, director Len Wiseman thought of tapping her for a cameo as a three-breasted hooker in his Total Recall remake. Luckily for the actress, Wiseman (who directed the British beauty in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution — and happens to be her husband in real life) instead cast Beckinsale in the much juicier role of Lori, the adoring wife of factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) whom Quaid discovers is actually an undercover agent hellbent on killing him. Consider that a divorce, indeed.
more »
The Colin Farrell-starring sci-fi remake Total Recall is readying for release this weekend (read Movieline’s review here) and while Len Wiseman's adaptation of the 1990 Paul Verhoeven film that mixes up bullets, muscles and abstract notions of Cartesian dualism and the specious present isn't the worst thing in the world, it is hardly memorable. (A bit of an unfortunate situation, as the whole thing is about memory.) Still, it's important that we don't present ourselves as the type of dweebs who get all hung up over sci-fi remakes. Sometimes, they're damn good, as this list of ten shall prove.
more »
Yes, there is a triple-breasted hooker in Len Wiseman's Total Recall remake.
If you happened to have missed the news posts and Comic-Con appearances (it was a lot of publicity for a three-line role), please rest assured that a futuristic working girl does indeed flaunt her unusually augmented bosom for Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), just as in the Arnold Schwarzenegger original. It's one of the few callbacks to the hallucinatory nature of Paul Verhoeven's wild-eyed, schlocky, terribly fun 1990 blockbuster, few other qualities of which this redo shares. The two films have the same underlying bone structure, sure, but this new Total Recall is made of more serious, more humorless stuff. It looks simultaneously lavish and interchangeable in its explosions and shoot-em-ups with a dozen other recent action movies, and in its sci-fi stylings with a dozen others in the genre.
more »
Friday’s Total Recall reboot trades heavily on brand enthusiasm for Paul Verhoeven’s original 1990 dystopian sci-fi actioner, but its makers had to be careful not to invoke too much of the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. And cool as it would’ve been to see the former Governator pop up in the new, grittier reimagining starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, and Bryan Cranston, director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) explained to Movieline why he chose not to indulge his inner fanboy.
more »
Again with this "teaser for a trailer" business. If you cannot wait until Sunday to get a glimpse of the actual trailer for Len Wiseman's Total Recall remake, here are thirty seconds of Colin Farrell driving flying cars and jumping off of balconies and Kate Beckinsale looking hot. I'm still holding out for evidence that Wiseman kept the three-boobed lady in his version, which will determine if this rehash of the 1990 sci-fi gem gets my ticket dollars or not.
more »
Remember the scene in Total Recall where our foe's eyes pop out of his head at a climactic moment? Well, your ears will perform a similar feat when you hear Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall DVD commentary with director Paul Verhoeven. It's as monotone, Austrian, and filled with hearty chuckles as you imagine. It is still funny. In fact, it is the best thing I've heard all month.
more »
Director Len Wiseman may not be taking Colin Farrell's Doug Quaid to Mars in his "realistic," more Philip K. Dicksian Total Recall remake, and his version may be "a hard PG-13" instead of the original film's R-rating. But rest assured, he's staying true to the best part of Paul Verhoeven's Arnie-starring 1990 classic: The three-breasted woman. "You can't make a Total Recall without certain things," Wiseman told Collider at Comic-Con. Indeed. [Collider]
Breaking Dawn highlighted yesterday's announcement of the Day One schedule for Comic-Con, but today's unveiling of Day Two's line-up promises even more star wattage in Hall H. Among the talent making appearances in support of upcoming projects: John Cusack, Steven Soderbergh, Jeff Bridges, Alex Proyas, Guillermo del Toro, Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Nicolas Cage, and Andrew Garfield. Hit the jump to see how many award nominees and Oscar winners will come through the geek event on Friday alone!
more »
