Bryan Cranston Reveals Details Of 'Total Recall' Remake

Bryan Cranston

Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston has revealed details of his character, and how it will differ from the original Total Recall character, following the beginning of filming in Toronto on Monday. Digital Spy revealed the interview in which Cranston talks about the essence of his character Vilos Cohaagen, a bad guy who attempts to take down Colin Farrell's character Quaid.

In the interview Cranston revealed that “I took a different path as you will see,”. “To me, to find [Quaid] and to capture him was about trying to restrain an unruly teenager of mine.

“I have no intention of causing him any long term damage, but he needs to be punished. He is being challenging like a teenager would be.

“That is my whole approach to it as opposed to the ‘I want him dead!’ kind of feeling.”

Trying to restrain an unruly teenager? That role in Malcolm In The Middle certainly still has a place in

Three Big Names, Including Bill Nighy, Sign Up For 'Total Recall'

Bill Nighy

The upcoming reboot of the 1990 film Total Recall has not failed to attract big names to its cast. The film had already attracted Colin Farrell into the lead role of Doug Quaid, and just last week another Hollywood A-Lister in the form of Ethan Hawke joined the team. Today three more big names have been revealed in the form of Bill Nighy (The Boat That Rocked), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) and Jessica Biel (The Illusionist). You may be aware that Bill Nighy and Kate Beckinsale have already worked together on the Underworld films so it will be interesting to see whether director Len Wiseman will use their personal relationship in the film.

Bill Nighy will take the role of Quatto, described an an 'enigmatic and charming leader of the resistance' by Total Film. Len Wiseman's wife Kate Beckinsale has landed the lead female role of Lori whilst Biel will play second lead female Melina. Bryan Cranston (Malcolm In The Middle) has been bagging many a role

The Way Back (2010)

Cinematically Beautiful - 4/5

So I saw this film yesterday called The Way Back. You may have seen it cropping up in the DVD shelves of the shops near you, as it has just been released, and so I thought it worthy of a review. The film is a critically acclaimed (Academy Award Nomination - Best Makeup) true life story of a group of prisoners who escape from a Siberian gulag and embark on the 4000 mile trek into British controlled India. As you can imagine the plot brings with it visceral and beautifully harsh landscapes including the Siberian wastelands, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas. The stunning beauty of the environment clearly played a key role in the way this film was created. It focused primarily on cinematic beauty and emotionally evoking scenes and succeeded.

Though the acting takes second place to the cinematography, it certainly didn't fall down. Celebrity A-Lister Colin Farrell made an all too brief appearance as Valka, an unstable and violent prisoner who escapes along with the rest of the group. Ed Harris provided a stellar performance, as he more often that not does, as the American soldier Mr Smith but he could not compete with Jim Sturgess (21, Fifty Dead Men Walking) who was sublime as protagonist Janusz. You could feel the determination and desperation of the real life character through him and he was a brilliant pick for the lead role.

The only complaint I can think of is that some major scenes were skipped over with little detail provided. For

Ethan Hawke Signs On To 'Total Recall'

Ethan Hawke

Training Day and Staten Island star Ethan Hawke has signed on for a cameo role in the new reboot of Total Recall which will star Colin Farrell in the role Arnold Schwarzenegger first brought us. The remake has been penned by Kurt Wimmer and is based on a story by Philip K Dick.

Details of Hawke's cameo appearance are being kept secret according to THR. Kate Beckinsale has been offered the part of Lori, who Sharon Stone played in the 1990 version. Beckinsale is married to director Len Wiseman. Jessica Biel, Rosario Dawson and Eva Mendes are competing for the role of Melina, the character who helps Farrell's character Doug Quaid get to the bottom of the scandal.

The original film focused on Quaid buying a dream vacation to try and escape a recurring dream of journeying to Mars. He then believes he is a secret agent and attempts to overthrow the ruler. The new film will show some differences to the original in that there will be two nation states (Euromerica and New

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

A Good Homage - 3.5/5

So I saw this film yesterday called 'The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus'. With this film I found I couldn't help but focus my entire attention to the great Heath Ledger's performance, due to it being his final ever film. With this in mind, I found the film got off to a slow and slightly confusing start. To me, it was only when Ledger's character Tony was revealed to us that the film began to take off. Ledger's performance was definitely a truly memorable one. It shows how far he progressed from the days of '10 Things I Hate About You'. He performs in a very modest way in this film and his little facial expressions were absolutely captivating. The only one out the the three other stars in the film (Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell) was Farrell, who incidentally would be my favourite actor out of the three. He was the only one to really capture anywhere near the magic that Ledger brought to the film. In saying this however, his small role was dwarfed by Ledger.

In terms of storyline I must admit that I get a bit lost at times. I couldn't follow Terry Gilliam's train of thought as well as I had hoped. The film brought back images of 'Pan's Labyrinth', a film that is, at times, equally confusing. I don't think Gilliam took enough time to fully explain the story to the audience. Of course this has to be put down to the extremely unfortunate death of its main man part way through filming. The film was a great homage to Heath Ledger's legacy despite its flaws.

Another stand out role for me was Andrew Garfield as Tommy. I saw 'The Social Network' before I saw this film and I just didn't realise he had this sort of performance in him. He was truly stunning. His cockney accent and cheeky personality was convincing and whereas I found him a tad one-dimensional in 'The Social Network', here he showed us his full range of talents.

This is certainly one to watch mainly due to it being Heath Ledger's final role. He will be sorely missed and he was a treasure to the film industry.

Phone Booth (2002)

Mint - 4/5

So I saw this film on Channel 5 last night called 'Phone Booth'. I've seen this film many a time and, despite it literally being set in one single location, I never find myself getting bored of it. Colin Farrelll's performance is exceedingly arrogant and shovenistic towards the beginning but becomes hugel emotional as the film progresses, showing the diversity that Farrell can bring to any film. It's astonishing that Joel Schumacher managed to bring us such a captivating movie when the events unfolded in one single setting. In this way the film was a breath of fresh air to the 'hostage' genre of film. With previous films in this sub-type such as 'The Negotiator' and 'Speed' we feel a great tension building during the hostage scenes but when it breaks away to show some fairly pointless footage of the hostage taker or the police doing their work you lose the sense of empathy to those who have bee taken prisoner. By sticking solely to Farrell's character in this film, Schumacher enabled us to empathise during every second. This made Farrell's tearful scenes that much more emotional. I think the single location however was the reason for the short length on this film (81 minutes), which meant we were not beginning to be bored by the end.

What a good call the casting of Forest Whitaker was as Captain Ed Ramey. I seem to recall that, when I first watched this film, it was the first major role I had seen him in. I'd noticed his fleeting appearance in 'Platoon' but to me, 'Phone Booth' was the film that catapulted his career to where it is today. He was so genuine in the role. Now I'd be the first to admit that I'm a huge fan of Denzel Washington, but there was something about the role that actors such as this couldn't have pulled of. Whitaker was by far the right man for the job. This film was the film that tranformed me into a Forest Whitaker fan, simple as that.

I've never had a conversation in which somebody has said they dislike this film. It appeals to everyone and it is a British television favourite because it's a film that people can just sit and watch. They may not plan to watch it but when they see it on the TV guide it just leaps off the page.
Would I recommend it? Why haven't you seen it already?