It’s pretty crazy to think Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall hit theaters 19 years ago, but not as crazy as hearing Columbia Pictures and producer Neal H. Moritz are ready to remake the picture into what is being classified as a contemporary version.
The original film won an Oscar for best visual effects and was based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” The story followed a man (Schwarzenegger) haunted by a recurring dream of journeying to Mars who buys a literal dream vacation from a company called Rekall Inc., which sells implanted memories. The man comes to believe he is a secret agent and ends up on a Martian colony, where he fights to overthrow a despotic ruler controlling the production of air.
TriStar released the original picture in 1990 and Dimension Films picked up the sequel rights but lost them when Miramax split from Disney and Columbia stepped in and secured the rights from Miramax.
Strangely enough, as I mentioned, the film won an Oscar for visual effects, but Moritz apparently hopes the advancements in technology and state-of-the-art visual effects can help tell the Recall story in a fresh way. Since when do effects allow a story to be told in a fresh way? Last I checked story depended on… well… story.
