Bryan Cranston has certainly upped his profile since getting his Emmy-winning role on “Breaking Bad.” He recently had a small, but memorable role in The Lincoln Lawyer but now he’ll soon be all over the big screen and the trend is obviously continuing as Variety reports he’s landed the lead villain role opposite Colin Farrell in the upcoming Total Recall remake directed by Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard).
This remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger feature is described as a new, contemporized reimagining of the science fiction saga adapted by Kurt Wimmer, Mark Bomback and James Vanderbilt from the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Here’s the plot summary of Dick’s story via Wikipedia:
Douglas Quail, a simple and ordinary man, wishes to visit Mars. Unable to afford it, he visits a company, Rekal, Incorporated, that offers implanted memories (“extra-factual memory”). The attempt to implant some racy Mars memories of Quail as a secret agent reveals that Quail actually is an undercover government assassin with a mind full of dangerous secrets. The Rekal staff quickly get Quail out of their office; he heads home and finds certain physical evidence to support his new old memories. The government initially seeks his death but instead Quail manages to make a deal. He returns to Rekal to have his Mars memories once more suppressed, and is offered by way of compensation a set of heroic wish-fulfillment false memories. The Rekal staff begin the memory-implanting procedure — and uncover a different and older set of suppressed memories revealing that the unbelievable memories they are about to insert are already there and are true.
Farrell is playing the Quail character, which was originally played by Schwarzenegger, but I can’t remember the original film well enough to say which character Cranston will be playing. Can anyone help me on that?
Cranston is only the second name confirmed with a shortlist of female contenders announced last week to take up the role previously played by Sharon Stone. Those names include Eva Green, Jessica Biel, Paula Patton, Eva Mendes and Kate Bosworth.
Total Recall is just one of several big films on Cranston’s upcoming slate. He’ll be seen in the Tom Hanks directed feature Larry Crowne, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and Disney’s John Carter of Mars.
Columbia Pictures has currently set Total Recall for a August 3, 2012 release.
