Columbia Pictures has hired Equilibrium and Ultraviolet scribe Kurt Wimmer to pen a remake of Total Recall (which was first announced in February). Wimmer recently worked with the studio on the Angelina Jolie spy thriller Salt, and co-wrote the F. Gary Gray-directed Law Abiding Citizen.

Neal Moritz is producing the movie under his Original Films banner (yes, a company called Original Films is in the remake business). Not much is known about the new film, other than that the story will be a more “contemporized” adaptation of Philip K Dick’s story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, the book that spawned the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

First published in April 1966’s Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Wholesale (a pun on the 1962 Broadway Musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale) told the story of a ordinary man who pays to go on a virtually implanted vacation. But the implanted memories of being a secret agent on Mars unleashes deleted memories of his secret past. He discovers physical evidence to support his new old memories, and goes on the run from the government.

The book ends very differently from the Paul Verhoeven movie, with the main character making a deal with the government to return to Rekal to have his past memories suppressed with a new set of heroic wish-fulfillment memories. And again, old deleted memories, similar to the to be implanted memories, are once again revealed to be true. The moral of the story is that a man can’t become something he is not. Even if you can delete the memories, your dreams and fantasies would remain the same. Not very cinematic at all. I’m sure this “remake” will be closer to the Verhoeven film, as a screen adaptation of the book just wouldn’t work too well.  We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, is available in book stores or on Amazon for around $13.

The art in the header of this article was created by Jeff Ramirez for the Crazy4Cult art show. Previously featured on /Film in Cool Stuff.

source: THR