Bryan Cranston to Play 'Total Recall' Villain

Emmy winning actor and“Breaking Bad” starBryan Cranstonhas joined the cast of Len Wiseman’sTotal Recall, Sony’s remake of the science fiction thriller, opposite Colin Farrell.

In the updated version of Philip K. Dick’s“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” Farrell plays Douglas Quaid, an“unremarkable” factory worker that activates robot soldiers in a dystopian future Earth. The bots are controlled by a ruthless dictator named Vilos Cohaagen (Cranston), the leader of Euromerica secretly weakening the rival nation-state of New Shanghai for an invasion and hostile takeover.

The two civilizations are linked by a massive transit system called the China Fall, which operates like a sophisticated rollercoaster that plunges through the Earth’s core and emerges on the other side. In other words, the plot never involves the planet Mars, like the original movie by Paul Verhoeven.

After Quaid takes a trip to an illegal mind-altering facility, he discovers that he may actually be the disguised Hauser, an operative considered to be“public enemy number one” after he betrayed Cohaagen’s totalitarian government and joined the underground Resistance.  Only, due to suppressed memories and a few leftover clues, Quaid isn’t sure which side he is spying for anymore and, more importantly, who to trust.

Cranston was locked as Cohaagen last week while Wiseman narrows his choices to play Lori and Melinda, the two opposing women in Quaid’s mind-bending reality. Inglourious Basterdsactress Diane Kruger andSuperman Returns‘ Kate Bosworth were reportedly vying for the role of Lori, his wife, originally played by a young Sharon Stone. Several names, including Eva Mendes, Paula Patton, Jessica Biel and Eva Green, were up for the part of Melinda, his former(?) lover in the Resistance. Rachel Ticotin played the role in 1990.

Written by Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) and revised by James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Mark Bomback (Unstoppable), the story is intentionally grittier than Verhoeven’s take on the short story, rooted in a future where minds and facial features can be resculpted and the paranoia and confusion that results. Plus, it won’t include early’90s hokum and the overly demonstrative expressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sadly, I think the woman with three breasts has been written out of the remake.

Sources: Deadline,The Hollywood Reporter

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