O.k, I'm going to start off this article with SPOILER. While the nature of the role won't be a surprise to those who've seen the original, for those going in fresh this is quite a big deal. So I say again: SPOILER. And once more for good measure: SPOILER.
So, Len Wiseman's remake of Total Recall is playing fast and loose with the original concept, removing Mars and mutants, and adding some strong political overtones, but thankfully they are keeping Doug Quaid's (Colin Farrel) unreliable memories and the possibility that he is not who he thinks he is in play. And that is where Ethan Hawke's, up until now unknown, character comes in. Speaking to Screen Rant, producer Toby Jaffe had this to say about who Hawke is playing:
“Not to give away too much, but one of the big differences between the earlier film and this film is that not only do they erase his memory but they change the way he looks, so he has a different face. Ethan plays who he was before they wiped his mind and changed his face.”
So Ethan Hawke is playing Doug Quaid, just with a different face from a different point in time. My skin usually crawls at the mere mention of a remake, especially with a film I grew up with, but this remake seems to be doing a lot of things differently to separate it from the original, and that, for me, makes it one to watch out for.
Synopsis: As the nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai vie for supremacy, a factory worker (Farrell) begins to suspect that he's a spy, though he is unaware which side of the fight he's on.
Released: August 2nd USA / August 22nd Ireland & UK
