Len Wiseman Taking the Helm of “Total Recall” Total Remake

Twenty years after Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Sharon Stone a beatdown in Paul Verhoeven's "Total Recall," Len Wiseman is in final talks to direct a remake of the Philip K. Dick adaptation.

"I've always been fascinated with Philip K. Dick's short story, and I'm excited at that prospect of diving even deeper into the type of world it evokes and the questions it asks. I love that the most crucial mystery our character is trying to solve is the one of his own soul," Wiseman said in a press release sent out by Sony.

Kurt Wimmer, who wrote the current Angelina Jolie spy thriller "Salt," has been hired to write a new script based on Dick's novellette, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," about a man who wishes to visit Mars, but lacks the funds. He settles instead for going to a company called Rekal, that promises to implant fake memories of him as a secret agent on the red planet. Things quickly get weird/bad/crazy as they tend to do in Dick's stories.

After working in the art department on such films as "Godzilla," "Men and Black" and "Independence Day," Wiseman directed the first two "Underworld" movies, before helming the awesomely over-the-top "Live Free or Die Hard."

The first "Total Recall" was fun, if a bit dopey. It's best remembered for the fight between Arnold and Stone, the woman with the half-dozen breasts and Kuato, that super creepy baby-man-thing growing out of the dude's chest.

Yes, the whole reboot thing is overdone, but what's different about this project is that "Total Recall" wasn't a great movie to begin with. Remaking "Psycho" was pointless, you weren't going to make it better. "Total Recall," however...

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