‘Total Recall’ Lead Offered To Colin Farrell
The ‘offer’ story is one of the more useless developments in the movie news business. Because offers go out all the time, and the reason we don’t hear about most of them is that they’re meaningless as news. The offer is part of the process of getting a film made, but until it actually turns into an actor making a deal with a part it isn’t really news. (Even the most famous offer stories, like David Lynch andReturn of the Jedi, are only worth a damn as footnote trivia.)
But this one is a little better, because not only hasColin Farrellbeen offered the lead in theLen Wiseman-directed remake ofTotal Recall, he’s begun negotiations to take it.
Varietyreports on the offer and negotiations, saying that an early deal has been in the works for the past week. That’s all we’ve got right now, other than the previously known fact that Len Wiseman is working from a script byKurt Wimmerwhich intends to ‘contemporize’ the originalPhilip K. Dickstory ‘We Can Remember it For You Wholesale,’ from which the Arnold Schwarzenegger version of the film was born. Sort of. There were a lot of changes in that film, so this script could be a lot different from the existing film. Which would be good, though I’m still not sure I can generate much interest with Len Wiseman directing.
In the absence of more info, let’s dip into funTotal Recalltrivia: The lateDino De Laurentiis, who just passed this week, was once financingTotal RecallwithRonald Shusettas producer. He was the guy with whomDavid Cronenberg, among other directors who toyed with the film, was going to make the film in the early ’80s. They couldn’t agree on a script; Mr. Cronenberg wrote twelve drafts, and the last one was one he finally loved, but Dino wanted to go back to draft nine, and Ronald Shusett reportedly didn’t like any of the Cronenberg approach. Rather than continue to fight about it, they parted ways. The company run by Dino De Laurentiis went bankrupt and Arnold Schwarzenegger got Carolco to buy the rights, which led to thePaul Verhoevenversion. Now the remake of the film that was eventually made without either Dino DeLaurentiis or David Cronenberg has been offered to Colin Farrell, who also has apending dealto star inCosmopolisunder the direction of David Cronenberg. What a great world.
