Remaking Movies
Total Recall
Total Recall tells the story of Douglas Quaid/Hauser a man who's really not enjoying the route is life is going in and discovers a place called Rekall, a place where you can have false memories, live the life you want. He goes to Rekall to find himself already in false memories and see's his real life a secret agent in a war he doesn't know which side he is on.
The original Total Recall was realised in 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid/Hauser. In this Douglas' memories take him to Mars as a secret agent. In 2012 the remake of Total Recall see's Colin Farrell taking the role of Douglas Quaid/Hauser although in this his memories don't take him to Mars they instead keep him on Earth. Many people including myself thought casting Farrell to take a role once done by Scharzenegger was a bad idea, Scharzenegger done a great job of the 1990 original another wasn't necessary, proving us wrong, on it's US opening weekend Total Recall 2012 had a grossing of $25,577,758 after working with a budget of $125 million. The 1990 Total Recall had a grossing of $25,533,700 on it's opening weekend after working with a budget of $65 Million.
Total Recall 1990 was directed by Paul Verhoeven previous to Total Recall another successful film directed by Verhoeven is Robocop, after Total Recall he then went on to direct Basic Instict & Starship Troopers plus others but these were the most successful. Total Recall 2012 was directed by Len Wiseman who also directed the Underworld Saga and Live Free or Die Hard but is yet to direct since Total Recall. You can see in both of the Total Recalls more the original that both directors put their own flavour into them.Verhoeven's trio of Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers are all based in the future and use a similar styling. Another common thing with Verhoeven is Total Recall and Starship Troopers are both based on other planets. Where with Wiseman Underworld isn't based in the future but Total Recall is, you can still see his frames of work within the both films.
Although Wiseman's Total Recall is a remake of Verhoeven's being that the casting is totally different to the original and it being based on Earth not Mars, you get two "totally" different feels from the each of the films. Verhoeven's gives the full on Sci-Fi action feel where Wiseman's gives a full on action feel with futuristic settings.
In Total Recall Quaid's wife as portrayed by Sharon Stone in the original and Kate Beckinsale in the remake have also both been a part of both directors other successful films, Stone in Basic Instict and Beckinsale in Underworld. Both directors used their films main characters actors who were at the top of their game at the time of their respective films, taking the role of the Resistance Leader in the original is Marshall Bell who was fresh off Twins another film starring Scharzenegger in the remake the role was given to Bill Nighy who had previously starred in Underworld and was fresh off Wrath of the Titans. The role of Vilos Cohaagen the Colony Leader was given to Ronny Cox in the original who was fresh off Loose Cannons and Captain America, in the remake the role was given to Bryan Cranston who was in his final run of his most known role in Breaking Bad. Finally the role of Melina the love interest of our protagonist was given to Rachel Ticotin in the original who was just starting her filming career with only three previous films done, in the remake we see Jessica Biel as Melina who had just finished with New Year's Eve.
To conclude both films are differently the same, following the same story but expressing them in different ways, both films were strongly cast and all of the cast in both films gave of great characteristics of the same characters. Watching both films and knowing the directors other films you see that the same story can be told in different ways and still give off the same emotions at the end of the film.
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