Known for the hugely
successful “Underworld” film series, Len Wiseman now directs the big screen
re-imagining of “Total Recall,” an action thriller about reality and memory,
inspired by the famous short story by the iconic sci-fi author Philip K. Dick.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Sony Columbia Pictures |
In
the film, Rekall is a futuristic company that can turn your dreams into real
memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though
he's got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like
the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a
super-spy might be just what he needs.
But
when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. The line
between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the
balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.
“That
concept of Rekall, as Philip K. Dick created it in his story, is what made me
want to direct this movie,” says Len Wiseman. His take on the film was to delve
deeper into the main character by creating a hybrid of a psychological thriller
and an action film that just happens to be set in the future.
Wiseman’s
approach to “Total Recall” was to build practical sets wherever possible. “Of
course, there’s a lot of CG in this movie, because there’s certain things you
just simply can’t do,” he notes. “But if you can make it real, then I try to do
it. I love to build it and draw it, create it and shoot it.”
“He
wanted to make it as real as possible, because he feels it looks better,” says
producer Toby Jaffe. “He feels the actors perform better when they’re hanging
off of a car as opposed to hanging off a block on the stage. So it was part of
our agenda from the beginning to build practical versions of our futuristic
cars and shoot on real locations.”
Wiseman
approached friend and colleague Patrick Tatopoulos, who directed “Underworld:
Rise of the Lycans,” to design the production. Tatopoulos knew it was a project
he couldn’t pass up. “First of all, Len was directing it,” Tatopoulos notes.
“Secondly, the script was very exciting. For example, I liked the concept of
this gigantic elevator going through the Earth – for me, that’s even better
than going to Mars.”
For
“Total Recall,” the idea was to get across the idea that the film is set far in
the future – but not so far into the future that it is unrecognizable. Instead,
it’s very much a world that could grow out of our own. “We tried not to push
the envelope too far,” says property master Deryck Blake. “So if you look at a
lot of our sets, a lot of our props, we try to start with what we have today
and not try to go too far out there.”
“We
built a U-shaped set, and we cut it up like a pie and shot sections to make it
look like different elements, different parts of town,” explains Wiseman.
Even
when visual effects would be employed – as with the hover cars – Wiseman used a
mix of the practical and the virtual when he could. “We actually built the
hover cars and fixed them on top of street racing cars. The actors sit up top
and the drivers are down below,” producer Toby Jaffe explains. “I like that
better than the actors sitting in a shell on green screen. You see the
vibration and you have the actors’ performances reflecting the reality of it at
every turn.”
“Total Recall” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony
Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph
for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH
and join our fan contests.
No comments:
Post a Comment