A New ‘Total Recall’ Remake in the Works at Sony

It seems as if the whole of Hollywood is in a reboot mode instead of introducing original ideas. This time, it is the 90s classic sci-fi movie, Total Recall, which is reportedly getting yet another remake at Sony after it was already done in 2012. The 2012 remake led by Colin Farrell didn't receive a good response from the critics as well as the audience and was hardly able to recover its budget.

The new reboot is yet to finalize its cast and crew, but it could get into production by the end of next year. Daniel Richtman first revealed the news on his Patreon account regarding the reboot.

The 2012 remake was directed by Len Wiseman and alongside Colin Farrell, the film also stars Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, John Cho, and Jessica Biel, among others. The film is set at the end of the 21st century, where chemical warfare has devastated the Earth. The sole livable territory remaining is divided into two territories: the United Federation of Britain (UFB), which covers the British Isles and northwestern Europe, and the Colony, which covers the whole continent of Australia. Every day, factory workers from the Colony travel to the UFB via "The Fall," a gravity elevator that runs through the Earth's core. The discrepancy in living circumstances has given rise to the Resistance, a group of people labeled terrorists by the UFB who want to improve living conditions in the Colony.

The original Total Recall also has a very similar story to the 2012 remake. The film directed by Paul Verhoeven and led by Arnold Schwarzenegger is set in 2084, when Mars is a colonized world under the tyrannical regime of Vilos Cohaagen, who controls the mining of valuable turbinium ore. On Earth, Douglas Quaid, a construction worker, has recurring dreams about Mars and a strange woman. Intriguing, he pays a visit to Rekall, a corporation that implants realistic fake memories, and selects one set on Mars (with a blue sky) in which he is a Martian secret agent. However, before the implant is done, Quaid lashes out, convinced that he is a spy. Rekall staff destroy traces of Quaid's visit and send him home, believing Cohaagen's "Agency" had erased his memories.

The original film was a box-office super hit that grossed $261 million on a budget of around $50 million. However, it received mixed reactions from the critics. The 2012 remake flopped at the box office after earning only $211.8 million on a budget of $125 million. The critics as well as the audience response were mostly negative.

I am not sure what Sony is trying to achieve by once again rebooting it after the last remake fell flat, and it was also only 11 years ago. But surely if the film can find a perfect cast with a refined story while also being close to the original, it can be interesting.