Neal H. Moritz and his Original Films banner are in final negotiations with Columbia to remake the 1990 hit film, “Total Recall.”
The original version starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone and was loosely based on the Phillip K. Dick short story, “We Can Remember It For Your Wholesale.” The original version came at a time when Arnold was on a hot streak for summer, blockbuster movies.
Carolco was behind the original movie, which was distributed by TriStar. Dimension picked up the rights for a reported $3.15 million with the aim of developing a sequel. Columbia secured the rights from Miramax, which retained them when Harvey and Bob Weinstein left to start their own company.
Moritz says the short story is “prescient” and that he hopes advances in visual effects technology can tell the story in a new way.
If the movie does stay faithful to the original work by Phillip K. Dick, it would be a rarity in Hollywood. Dick’s stories dealing with the nature of identity and heightened paranoia have been snapped up by Hollywood, only to be changes to virtually unrecognizable on the big-screen.
Yes, PKD is probably rolling in his grave whenever Hollywood takes one of his books and makes it into an explosion fest.
I’ve learned that you read and enjoy the book; but when the movie comes out just accept the fact that the only thing it will have in common with the book is the title and maybe the names of a couple of the characters 🙁
I enjoyed the book and the movie each for completely different reasons. I personally don’t mind remakes, but this movie stood quite well on its own and I would prefer for them not to remake it.
Despite what is said on the commentary track … the *only* way the 1990 movie worked is that THE WHOLE ADVENTURE WAS IN HIS MIND .. totally.
Once I understood that .. I actually liked the movie (up ’till then I really didn’t care for it)
So .. are they going to do a “sequel” or a “re-make” (both are mentioned in the above article) ?