Stars of sci-fi remake recall their total workout
The separately harnessed Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel are chatting casually as they face each other, dangling by tethers 40 feet from the Pinewood Toronto Studios sound stage floor.
They seem neither nervous nor anxious, but they are trying to distract each other with playful conversation.
Below, director Len Wiseman and his crew are preparing for a complicated special-effects scene in the sci-fi film remake, Total Recall, opening in theatres Friday.
After working out some technical glitches, the director gets Farrell and Biel turned headfirst toward the floor with only the harnessing holding them in place.
With cameras finally rolling, they are slowly lowered at separate intervals to mimic a gravity-defying dive. Just before they get to ground level, Wiseman yells, “C_ut,” and they prepare to do the escape scene all over again. A few hours later the director has the shot, and they move on to the next sequence.
As it is, the cast and crew are near the shoot’s end on this day in early September last year. They’ve been filming in and around the city since May, and the painstaking nature of the sci-fi blockbuster is beginning to take its toll.
Still, Farrell, Biel and Wiseman are in good spirits when they take a break to discuss remaking the 1990 Paul Verhoeven movie that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Wiseman is quick to point out his Total Recall tries to capture the tone of the original Philip K. Dick story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.
“I have to say I’m fascinated that Philip K. Dick questions reality, but doesn’t answer (the question),” says the director, noted for his Underworld series of vampire movies with wife Kate Beckinsale. “I like (Dick’s) quest to find out who we are. So, I want the film to be entertaining, like a great ride, but I want it to be an intelligent one.”
The new Total Recall makes some other adjustments. For instance, Farrell’s Quaid doesn’t travel to Mars, but stays Earthbound. And Beckinsale, who plays an updated villain, is an amalgamation of the bad guys portrayed by Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside in the first film.
However, Farrell’s Quaid, like Schwarzenegger’s, is still a factory worker, who realizes he’s had a fake memory implanted in his brain. Soon enough, he believes he’s either a spy at odds with freedom fighters or the totalitarian regime. Biel’s Melina is a resistance fighter with a past.
Farrell might be the lead, but both Biel and Farrell have physically demanding roles. And, it seems the past 14 hours proved to be especially rough.
“We have a rough day every day,” says a smiling Biel turning to Farrell for confirmation at a makeshift interview table.
Farrell is especially enthusiastic about his return to a blockbuster after Miami Vice in 2006. Since then, he’s been involved in a string of modest, independent features; from last year’s Fright Night and Horrible Bosses to 2009’s Crazy Heart, which earned Jeff Bridges a best actor Oscar, and 2008’s In Bruges.
“I was open for the first time in a few years to do something that’s really big,” Farrell says of Total Recall. “But it’s terrifying,” he adds, looking back at Biel.