Author Topic: Remake of Total Recall in the offing  (Read 3584 times)

Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« on: 28 June, 2012, 03:04:17 pm »
This, to my mind, has to be one of the worst ideas possible - trying to remake any of the early Arnie films is IMO futile, but especially "classics" such as Total Recall and Running Man. Quintissential Arnie. Colin Farrell won't cut it.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #1 on: 28 June, 2012, 03:18:43 pm »
They could remake it in a slightly more Phillip K Dick-ish way

There are plenty of other PKD books that haven't had a film made of them though.  With CGI a film version of "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich" might even, almost, work as a film.  I must re-read that.  Ubik is another classic of PKD that might work now that we have much better special effects.  In the past the problem with PKD books is that they are one long dream sequence.

Or David Lynch could do "Martian Timeslip".  If you haven't read the book, it makes you think you are going mad as you read it.  It's about a clairvoyant schizophrenic on Mars.  Or is he clairvoyant?  Maybe he can actually travel through time.  Whatever that means.




Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #2 on: 28 June, 2012, 03:20:30 pm »
I've forgotten the original, if I ever saw it that is.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #3 on: 28 June, 2012, 03:39:14 pm »
I was reading last night about a remake of a classic movie which really didn't need remaking.  Fortunately, unlike in the case of The Italian Job, my automatic mindwipe defence cut in, so I cannot tell you which particular travesty it was which made my jaw drop so.

Fwiw, I thought the original Total Recall/Terminator/Running Man/Commando/Conan/Hercules in New York/Any other POS with Arnie in it was crap.
Getting there...

red marley

Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #4 on: 28 June, 2012, 03:54:01 pm »
I agree with Vorsprung on this. I'm a big PKD fan and the Arnie Total Recall really just nicks bits of the plot without bringing anything of substance. Arnie was so utterly unconvincing as the everyman out for a bit of adventure that a remake could only do better. Let's hope it attempts to capture the PKD paranoia of the book.

I thought they did a pretty good job in adapting A Scanner Darkly - the rotoscoping being an appropriate use of the device rather than just a gimmick. And as I think I've suggested here before, The Truman Show is a pretty good adaptation of Time out of Joint, without ever acknowledging so.

But yes, adaptations of some of his better works, especially Ubik, Valis and Three Stigmata would be great projects.


Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #5 on: 28 June, 2012, 04:01:28 pm »
I haven't seen scanner. Must do so sometime.

All of the rest, including Bladerunner, don't bear any resemblance to the books. Bladerunner is a good film, just not the PKD story (which revolves around the religious contemplation of the existence or non-existence of a soul; do androids have souls? If they dream of sheep, are the sheep electronic?).

A remake of total recall could be good. But get rid of the action kung fu crap and muscles, please.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #6 on: 28 June, 2012, 04:12:59 pm »
A remake of total recall could be good. But get rid of the action kung fu crap and muscles, please.
From what I've read, this is no remake. They've changed the setting completely.

I think they've only kept the 'implanted memories of spy adventures' kernel of the story. I imagine it will still be a big budget action movie. As said above, just remaking the same film (wihtout Arnie!) would be ludicrous - but typically Hollywood  ::-)

My optimism rating: about 5/10 currently.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #7 on: 28 June, 2012, 04:32:16 pm »
Ubik as a film - if done correctly - would be a total mind-fuck, though my worry would be that whoever makes it will crowbar in some blindingly obvious clues early on that things aren't what they seem for Joe Chip and the team...
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #8 on: 28 June, 2012, 04:33:26 pm »
I've forgotten the original, if I ever saw it that is.

A radio adaptation of We Can Remember It for You Wholesale makes an appearance on Radio 4extra occasionally - last broadcast in January 2012.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #9 on: 28 June, 2012, 04:42:50 pm »
I've forgotten the original, if I ever saw it that is.

A radio adaptation of We Can Remember It for You Wholesale makes an appearance on Radio 4extra occasionally - last broadcast in January 2012.
I'm sure I remember that being on last month.

Or do I ...

(EDIT: I really rate Arnie's Total Recall as Quite Clever SF Action. Until The Matrix, it probably topped the genre. )
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

LEE

Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #10 on: 28 June, 2012, 04:52:43 pm »
I've forgotten the original, if I ever saw it that is.

A radio adaptation of We Can Remember It for You Wholesale makes an appearance on Radio 4extra occasionally - last broadcast in January 2012.
I'm sure I remember that being on last month.

Or do I ...

I dreamt that my pet sheep watched it.

As for Arnold being crap in Terminator, I must disagree.  He was perfect casting for an emotionless Cyborg.  It's when he played human beings that we realised that he wasn't acting in Terminator.

Suggestions for a better actor to play the Terminator.........??  Maggie Smith?  I don't think so. 

I've read "Do Andriods..." and "We can dream it for you...".  I prefer the films to be honest.  Yes, they just took a premise and made a different film out of them  but "Do Androids..." would be a dreary film.

Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #11 on: 28 June, 2012, 08:10:27 pm »
Slightly OT, but to do with muscles!


For those who have ever read Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, the hero is a big guy, imposing and threatening.. From Wikipedia:

Quote
Reacher is a giant, standing at 6' 5" tall (1.96m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat, and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader, he has never been an exercise enthusiast.) He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner. Reacher is strong enough to break a man's neck with one hand (Bad Luck and Trouble) and kill a villain with a single punch to the head (Running Blind and 61 Hours) or chest (Worth Dying For). In a fight against a 7 foot, 400 lb steroid-using thug (Persuader), Reacher was able to lift his opponent into the air and drop him on his head.


The film being released later this year has apparently cast that well known imposing giant Tom Cruise as the hero!

That alone is enough to make me avoid the film!



Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #12 on: 03 February, 2019, 04:38:57 pm »
A bit of thread mining, but I just came across the new version of this film (albeit, 6 years after it was made!) on Amazon Prime, and watched it out of curiosity.

It is essentially a remake of the Arnie version, however there are some substantial changes to the storyline.  Colin Farrell is a far more believable character than Arnie was, and generally they've played this version with a lot less of the lighthearted elements of the earlier one, and that seems to have been a good choice. In my opinion, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel also work better than Rachel Ticotin and Sharon Stone did.  Sharon Stone, like Arnold, seemed to have been inserted into the film as actors who were popular at the time, rather than ones who actually suited the parts.

The basic concepts aren't quite as scientifically bad as the 1990 version, although there are still things which are hardly rigorously accurate, but the future it portrays is more accurate given our current technology, than the earlier version.  It's quite a bit more dystopian, and Mars is barely mentioned.  I think the one small mention of Mars that I noticed, was like a few of the other elements, dropped in as a small tribute to the earlier version.

I think it works quite well.  I haven't read the PKD novel, so don't know how it compares to that, but it's certainly a better film than the one with Arnie.  It portrays a more realistic future, a bit darker, using far better special effects and with better acting.  The story also doesn't depend on telepathy, implausible and inaccurate science, and mysterious martians, which it definitely benefits from.  Overall I think I'd give it a B+ for an action and adventure film.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #13 on: 03 February, 2019, 04:50:14 pm »
Haven't read the novel but I've seen both films. Ho hum.  If they want to capitalize on PKD's name I'd rather they filmed some of the more surreal ones - A Maze of Death or The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich.  Or Ubik. Might be hard to make them comprehensible, though.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #14 on: 03 February, 2019, 09:17:04 pm »
Is the woman with three jubblies still in it?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #15 on: 04 February, 2019, 05:33:32 am »
Is the woman with three jubblies still in it?

Yes, which is another one of the nods to the previous version.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #16 on: 08 February, 2019, 12:36:56 pm »
That sounds like a missed opportunity. I love the Arnie version - very much of its time, in a good way - but I would be interested in seeing a more 'straight' adaptation of the book.

What I am not even remotely interested in seeing is a remake of the Arnie version, which sounds like the dull, unimaginative, money-driven pointlessness that puts me off most of Hollywood's output these days.

See also: Robocop.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #17 on: 08 February, 2019, 05:18:57 pm »
Is the woman with three jubblies still in it?

'That's awesome!'
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #18 on: 15 February, 2019, 07:08:31 pm »
One of the very few half-decent PKD versions (although they buggered the ending) was a very low-budget version of "Second Variety", a story that always left me with the shivers.

The film version is called "Screamers".
 
Now, Dick's stories were mostly about identity. Outer Limits filmed a not-too-bad version of 'Night of Puudly' by Clifford Simak, which is one of the few stories that overlap with Dick's obsessions. Spoiler account of the story Puudly brought to mind.

Now, let's see them try and film some Paul Linebarger. 'A Planet Named Shayol' would be interesting.

(click to show/hide)
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #19 on: 15 February, 2019, 07:30:26 pm »
Having flexed my Google-Fu for a Philip Dick story about a robot bomb, I reckon it's got to be Impostor - which, according to Wikinaccurate, has been adapted into a flim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_(short_story)
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: Remake of Total Recall in the offing
« Reply #20 on: 16 February, 2019, 11:56:08 am »
Having flexed my Google-Fu for a Philip Dick story about a robot bomb, I reckon it's got to be Impostor - which, according to Wikinaccurate, has been adapted into a flim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_(short_story)
That's the one.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i