More Casting News for Total Recall Remake

The remake of the 1990 sci-fi thriller Total Recall, itself an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", is scheduled to begin production next week in Toronto, and we're learning of some last minute casting news.

Colin Farrell has long been associated with the film, starring as Douglas Quaid, the role played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original. Now the two primary female leads have been cast: Kate Beckinsale as Lori (previously played by Sharon Stone) and Jessica Biel as Molina (previously Rachel Ticotin).

Total Recall 2012 (not the official title) will also star Brian Cranston as villain Vilos Cohaagen, Bill Nighy as resistance leader Quatto, and a "5 page monologue" cameo by Ethan Hawke.

Reportedly, the plot of the film will differ markedly from the original and be closer to the storyline in Dick's short story. The new story involves nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai, with Douglas Quaid (Farrell) a factory worker in the latter who begins to believe he is a spy, although he doesn't know for which side. Vilos Cohaagen (Cranston), the leader of Euromerica who, under the cover of protecting his people, is secretly readying an invasion of New Shanghai."

(Sources: Collider, The Hollywood Reporter)