A few weeks ago, we reported that Colin Farrell was Sony’s top choice for the lead role in their remake of Total Recall, although at the time, they were still mulling over other names, such as Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender.
Well now Variety reports that an official offer has been made to Farrell for the Len Wiseman directed flick, and he’s now in negotiations with the studio to star. As we mentioned in our previous story, it seems to difficult to imagine Farrell in a role once played by Arnie, but it depends very much on the direction the script takes. Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 movie was only loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, so there’s plenty of scope to alter the part from an Austrian man-mountain with limited acting skills, to something more suited to Farrell (although many would suggest the limited acting skills will still be present with Farrell in the lead).
The actor hasn’t officially signed on yet, but it appears he’s extremely interested, so we may see him as Douglas Quaid, a man tortured by recurring dreams of a trip to Mars, to the point where it becomes impossible to tell whether his life is real, or if it’s all part of a memory implant.