Remember how we all had faith in the upcoming Total Recall reboot because it was supposedly going to be closer to the original Philip K. Dick short-story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale?”
Well, it appears that may not be the case, according to actor Colin Farrell.
Farrell says that the script for the reboot comes more from the original film version that the short story.
“There’s literally stuff to be done with that same story. And it’s not, and I read some blurb it’s going back to the original short story. No it’s not! It’s Kafka, the original short story, I mean it was Philip K. Dick, but it was so dark and it was such a kind of omnipresent sense of power and corruption, and that plays into ours as well, but it’s not nearly as dark as the original. But it’s good stuff. It’s good stuff. So I’m going to start that in a couple weeks,” Farrell says.
“I met Len [Wiseman], I saw some of the artistic renderings of what he’s going to do with that world and it’s amazing! I mean, who knows what a film is from its conception to its full realization, so many factors involved. You always go in with hope and with expectation. I just know what he’s going to do as far as creating that world. And it’s great,” he adds.
So, does this news make you more or less excited to see the reboot?
Very encouraging news from Farrell. This story is such a great sci-fi mind-@%#ck that it would've been a shame to ruin. Glad they're trying to stay true with the reboot.
As I have not read the original story, I can only hope the new movie doesn't suck. I did enjoy the first film, but mostly because of the campy romp on Mars.
Besides, I have Five kids to feed, man...
I've not read the original PKD story. However, from the experience I had reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? vs Blade Runner, I'm not terribly bothered that the new TR movie is not adhering to the original story. I found PKD to reek of hopelessness and frankly I don't need that in my entertainment.
Generally, I have found adaptions of PKD, and "Blade Runner" and the 1990 "Total Recall" in particular, to be far more cynical and nihilistic than the original PKD stories on which they were based. What ever he was, PKD was no nihilist. Paranoid tendencies? Sure. But he believed there was such thing as truth, and he believed truth mattered. The only film I saw that seemed to capture a bit of the spirit (though not the letter) of PKD was "The Adjustment Bureau".
1990's Total Recall had a nihilistic ending. If the current film has an ending twist that is closer to PKD's short story, at least in spirit, then I will be happy. Whether the overall script is more based on the earlier film or not does not matter to me much.