“UNDERWORLD” DIRECTOR LEN WISEMAN HELMS “TOTAL RECALL”

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.

 

JESSICA BIEL FIGHTS FOR THE RESISTANCE IN “TOTAL RECALL”

While not an out-and-out adrenalin junkie, Jessica Biel likes a little action in her life. Alongside comedy pieces like “Valentine's Day” and “New Year's Eve,” Biel’s filmography is peppered with physical roles, from the remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” through “Blade: Trinity” to her recent outing in “The A-Team.” And now she’s at it again with a physically enervating role in “Total Recall,” a high-intensity, futuristic action-thriller.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

             “It’s rare being a woman to be able to use your body in the way that we can use our body in these kinds of film,” says Biel. “I don’t do that kind of thing on an everyday basis but I find it really fulfilling to work like that on screen. It’s amazing; you get to learn so much, about different martial arts, or boxing or whatever it is, which is great.”

             Biel’s latest role is that of a Resistance fighter called Melina in a reboot of “Total Recall.” The new film is drawn from the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”, which also inspired the 1990 “Total Recall” movie, shot by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the leading role; Rachel Ticotin, meanwhile, played the Melina character. 

             “In our movie, Melina’s profession is a bit different,” says Biel, “but then the tone is so different that it is actually quite difficult to compare any of these characters in the two movies. She is really a reinvention of the original character that Rachel had created. She is still a warrior and still a survivor and she is quite ballsy, I guess.   In the original she didn’t take any crap from Arnold and I don’t think this character takes any crap either!” 

             The character in this movie plays an integral role in the journey of the main hero, Quaid (Colin Farrell), a seemingly normal guy who’s living an existence that is not quite his own. Len Wiseman, who helmed “Underworld,” “Underworld Evolution” and “Live Free or Die Hard,” directs.

             “When I heard about Total Recall and read the script it sounded really fun and also very different from the first movie,” explains Biel. “At the time that the first movie was made it was such a feat of computer-generated imagery; it was amazing cutting-edge CGI. Now, to look back at it, it doesn’t necessarily hold up in that way, but the tone and the fun of it is still there.”

             Biel says that she and Farrell would on occasion watch scenes from the original. “Sometimes Colin and I would wonder whether we should be making something that’s more fun and light-hearted like that movie, but then I know that we definitely made the right choice [in going a little darker]. 

             “Len Wiseman made the right choice by really rebooting the idea, and not trying to copy the first movie with the same tone,” continues the actress, “because that really was a moment, that film at that time, and I don’t think you want to mess with it. It was perfect the way that it was. Our film feels very different and very cool.”

             While the film offers an essentially dystopian vision of the future, Biel says that some of the futuristic gadgets are mind-bogglingly fun. “I figure I wouldn’t mind a hover car,” she says of the film’s primary form of transport. “There’s also a really cool gun that Colin uses and when it fires all these crazy legs come out, and you can wrap people up!”

             She says that were she, like Quaid in the movie, to enter Rekall for a memory implant, she might opt for the life of a CIA operative. “I’ve always been fascinated by detectives and secret agents,” she says, “so maybe I would work on something like a murder unit.”

             Biel laughs. “I know that sounds a little bit morbid, but I’m one of those people that is obsessed with [the TV show] 48 Hours. I love that kind of stuff. I’m interested in crime and why people do what they do.”

             Hence she loves the intrigue and intricate plotting that ripples through Total Recall. The actress says that she feels as though her character is “the heart of the film.” She adds, “And for Quaid she is that one constant. From the second that he meets her, she’s just truthful and she continues to tell him the truth, even when he doesn’t believe her.”

             Quaid starts to question his identity as his story unfolds, realising that his world and his very existence are under siege. He becomes a wanted man, seemingly with no friends. Only the mysterious Melina offers a genuine helping hand.

             “It is interesting,” Biel adds. “In many ways Melina represents truth and intuition, that little feeling that you have when you meet somebody and you are like, ‘I don’t know why, but I just know you. l feel like I’ve known you for a long time.’ That little voice that’s hard to listen to. The brain is very, very clever and manipulative, and can twist on you, but that intuition that’s there is always the truth, if you can hear it. If you can actually listen.”

             “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.

Kate Bekinsale in Total Recall

Fresh from returning as iconic vampire huntress Selene in last January's “Underworld: Evolution,” Kate Beckinsale now plays Lori, the seemingly loving wife who turns ruthless killer, in Columbia Pictures' sci-fi action-thriller “Total Recall.”

             The film is directed by Len Wiseman, Beckinsale’s real-life husband of seven years. The two previously worked together on the “Underworld” films.

             In the movie, 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 (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. 

             Finding himself on the run from the police, Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter Melina (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy). 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.

             Beckinsale said she was particularly attracted to this project because of the role’s duality. "I've never played a bad guy before. I've always been on the side of truth and justice,” she says. “But the thing is, my character thinks she is on the side of truth and justice. That’s the great thing about this movie – you never know who’s on the right side. Also, there's a slightly maniacal side of her – she's slightly out of control, and that's always fun for an actor to play.

             “It was nice to not have to worry about whether the audience was on my side,” continues Beckinsale. “Also, the villain rarely has to be responsible for exposition and the plot. The villain really doesn’t have to do that, so you can really just kind of immerse yourself in her mood and her character and her motives, and it was kind of a treat.

             The script originally called for a blond character, but Wiseman thought it made more sense to cast someone who resembled Melina, Quaid’s true love. “My idea was to set him up with a fake wife that has some real similarities to his real love,” he explains. “If that surface memory is coming back, it makes sense for her to have a vague, familiar vibe about her.”

             “The female roles in the film required women who not only were likable and attractive but could actually be physical,” says producer Neal H. Moritz. “And Jessica Biel can fight like the devil and Kate Beckinsale can probably beat the devil. So the two of them, you know, in these sequences of having to be physical throughout the whole movie, were incredible.”

             “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.

COLIN FARRELL UNCOVERS HIS REAL MEMORIES IN “TOTAL RECALL”

Colin Farrell stars as a factory worker who'd rather have real memories of a super-spy, in Columbia Pictures' new action-adventure “Total Recall.” He turns to Rekall, a futuristic company that can turn your dreams into real memories. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

             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.

 

             “It was very important that Quaid is just an ordinary guy,” producer Toby Jaffe says. “Colin just brings a real genius to him as an actor. There’s a likeability onscreen that you just feel he’s a real guy who could be a real factory worker.”

             “It’s a common story, a man who feels that he isn’t living the life he should be living – a man experiencing some discontent with his lot in life,” says Farrell. “But he gets a rude awakening, which is that he really isn’t living the life he should be living. Quaid has no idea who he is, beyond a deeply cellular or emotional level. The whole movie is him trying to figure out who is the real Quaid.”

             “I really wanted to get more involved in Quaid’s experience,” Wiseman explains. “I mean, imagine: you wake up, you go about your life and you inherently feel like a good guy… All of a sudden, everybody around you starts telling you that you’re a bad guy. What do you do?”

             With that in mind, Farrell approached the role as a battle between emotional and intellectual and tried to maintain that balance. “It brings up issues of identity, ego, and super-ego – it’s fun to wade into that psychological pond a bit,” he says.

             As part of his development of the character, Farrell did some unusual things – including sleeping overnight in the Quaid Apartment set. “I just wanted to see what it was like to have an evening and then wake up in the morning in that space,” he says. “It was lovely, actually.”

             “Colin really dedicated himself to this character,” says producer Neal H. Moritz. “He’s in just about every scene. There were many days that he was standing in the rain all day long, wet as can be, and still, every day after filming he’d either go to yoga or lift weights.”

Whenever possible, Farrell performed his own stunts. The actor worked closely with stunt coordinator Andy Gill (“Fast Five”) and fight coordinator Jeff Imada (“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1”). “You get schooled when you come to work with them,” he says. “You get practical lessons that you’d never need to learn, if you weren’t doing this job.”

 “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.

Q&A WITH COLIN FARRELL FOR “TOTAL RECALL”

             Irish actor Colin Farrell stars in Columbia Pictures' “Total Recall,” an action thriller about reality and memory.

             In the film, Rekall is a futuristic company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (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.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

             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.

             Q. What sort of man is your character, Douglas Quaid, in this version of Total Recall?

             Colin Farrell: We were following Philip K. Dick's short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” and in it Quaid is a working class member of the proletariat, a worker, who is living a life that seems to be mundane enough for him to be having fantasies about, in the short story, going to Mars. In our film it is not necessarily dreams about going to Mars, but he’s having a recurring dream and it has a great significance. So really he’s just a normal man; he’s just an everyman. That’s the construct of the character and in his own life he’s feeling a great disconnect to his wife, to his work, to his friends, and he decides to have a memory of an experience implanted. He goes into this place in the film [Rekall] just looking for something.

             Q. Did you feel any pressure stepping into Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoes?

             Farrell: No, honestly, I didn’t feel any pressure. And I’m not trying to give a rehearsed answer, but it really felt like a different film. It really did. And I am a huge fan of the original Total Recall. I was a big fan of Arnie’s stuff as a kid, I’m talking Red Heat, Commando, obviously Terminator, and Predator is still to this day one of the best action films I think I have ever seen. I loved his stuff, and love his stuff, so thank God I didn’t feel pressure to fill those shoes or compete with that ability to throw out a one-liner. Maybe I could do Predator next (laughs)!

             Q. Your vision of Total Recall is darker and more serious than Arnie’s, presumably?

             Farrell: I wouldn’t like to say the original is cheesy, but it was a bit camp. You put a bullet in your wife’s head and you say [imitates Schwarzenegger]: ‘Consider that a divorce!’ I mean, that was good, that was very good. It’s camp, and it’s not camp because it’s outdated. It was camp at the time; it’s meant to be. It’s intended that way, it’s not an accident, but this film is tonally very different. I really approached it more as a drama, set against the backdrop of these magnificent cityscapes and these really elaborate action scenes.

             Q. It’s not your first movie based on a story by Philip K. Dick…

             Farrell: No, I did Minority Report. And with Minority Report and Total Recall, they’re not dissimilar visions of the future. They’re both inspired by Philip K. Dick’s work, and while his stories in literary form are open to interpretation and expansion, he inspired a certain world format. Sci-fi generally seems to be a fertile ground for drama. There’s a suspicion among all of us I think that the future is not so bright. Technology is making incredible leaps but what we are doing to ourselves as human beings is quite alarming. So while the vision of the future in Minority Report is not all that dark, it certainly is in Total Recall, Blade Runner, Pitch Black, Alien and the like.

             Q. Total Recall looks a physical role so did you work out specifically for the film?

             Farrell: I worked out consistently for three or four months, for five or six days a week, with weights. And I ran a lot. There’s a background to the character that is touched upon in the film where he might have had some military training, which I’d need to know about. I knew it was going to be a physical shoot so yes I worked out quite a bit.

             Q. You seemed to move away from blockbusters for a while before taking on Total Recall. Was it a conscious decision to stay away from them?

             Farrell: I had a few films that were big but that didn’t do so well, and I wasn’t getting offered that many big blockbusters either. Then this came along and I read the script. I was initially dubious when I heard that they were remaking Total Recall. I thought, ‘Is it worth it and what are they going to say about the original?’ But I read it and it was such an excellent script.

             Q. Did it feel good then, returning to a huge movie like this?

             Farrell: Actually Total Recall genuinely felt more intimate than some of the smaller films I’ve done. It just happens that way and it defies explanation. It was like 100 and whatever million dollars, but I worked really, really closely with [director] Len Wiseman, and with the other actors. The crew was really, really cool and I lived in Toronto for five months. We got to know each other quite well and it felt a lot more intimate than it had any right to feel. There were all these grand action sequences and these beautiful epic worlds, but on the day it was just a bunch of actors on set, trying to figure out what the other person was feeling and doing and thinking, and trying to figure out what you were feeling and doing and thinking. Ideally, I would mix it up, go from one genre to another. I’d love to do big films and small films for the rest of my life.

             Q. Your next two films sound interesting as well…

             Farrell: I’ve just finished a film, Seven Psychopaths, with Martin McDonagh. Martin’s stuff is always kind of absurd and dark and yet hopeful. This one was set in America and I’m the only Irish character in it. And then I’m just starting on Dead Man Down. It’s written by Joe Wyman and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. It’s about an Hungarian immigrant who loses his family and decides to infiltrate a gang that was responsible for the death of his daughter. That script really is dark.

             (Opening across the Philippines on August 22, “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.)