Jessica Biel May Join 'Total Recall'

The Len Wiseman-directed remake / new version of Total Recall already has Colin Farrell as the lead character, and Bryan Cranston as the antagonist. We know there are two big female roles to cast, Lori, the main character's wife, and Melina, whom he encounters as the story goes on. They were originally played in the Paul Verhoeven/Arnold Schwarzenegger version by, respectively, Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin.

We know that a long list of actresses has been in contention for two parts in the new version  that roughly correspond to their counterparts in the previous film. Now it looks like Jessica Biel will land one of the two parts.

Variety says that Jessica Biel is circling one of the two roles, but has no intel on which. (She originally read for Melina, but there is some indication she may play Lori instead.)

The trade does say this by way of recapping the plot:

The film follows Douglas Quaid, a man who believes he is a secret agent and ends up on a Martian colony where he fights to overthrow a ruler controlling the production of air.

When we heard the first plot recap a couple weeks back it omitted any mention of Mars at all, focusing instead on the conflict between nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai, so this seems to skew the film back towards both the original Philip K Dick story We Can Remember it For You Wholesale and the Paul Verhoeven film.

Still, some of the characters and plot have reportedly been pretty seriously reworked. The only character for whom we have concrete info is Bryan Cranston's role, Vilos Cohaagen, "the leader of Euromerica who, under the cover of protecting his people, is secretly readying an invasion of New Shanghai."

Total Recall shoots soon in Toronto; the film is already scheduled to open on August 3, 2012.