Colin Farrell hopes for a Total Recall

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 Aug. 3.

After working out some technical glitches, the director gets Farrell and Biel turned head first 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, "Cut," 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.

At a nearby empty sound stage, Wiseman admits that he's a fan of the Schwarzenegger flick, but he 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 instan! ce, Farr ell's Quaid doesn't travel to Mars for his adventure, 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.

And what about Schwarzenegger's glib oneliners? ("Consider that a divorce" for one). "The oneliners have a slightly different tone in this one, but they find themselves in there somehow," Wiseman says.

However, Farrell's Quaid, like Schwarzenegger's, is still a futuristic blue-collar worker, who suddenly 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," a smiling Biel says, turning to Farrell for confirmation at a makeshift interview table.

"And she's high all the time, anyway," Farrell jokes as he returns her gaze.

Certainly, they were high in a different way just hours ago, and they aren't about to pretend it was another shift at the dream factory.

"For that particular scene," Biel says, "it just gets to the point where your eyeballs feel like they are about to pop out, and all the blood is rushing to your face, and you're looking like you're coming through the camera."

Farrell's nodding. "It's really ungraceful," he says. "Things are happening to your body, and you're afraid if you laugh too hard, you might fart."

All things considered, they believe the agony's going to be worth it.

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 w as 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.

She co-starred in the action flick The A-Team in 2010, but she's better known for roles in romantic comedy ensembles, including last year's New Year's Eve and 2010's Valentine's Day.

That's why she admits her fight sequences were just as challenging as the dive scene they just completed.

"It seems I have to keep up with everybody else," she says. "But it's wonderful to learn about your body, and the limits of it, and then learn all over again when you get yanked up on a wire and spun around."

One of the highlights, in fact, is a confrontation between Beckinsale's evil Lori and Biel's Melina. And while Beckinsale had already been through martial arts training thanks to the Underworld series, Biel mostly learned as they progressed on set.

"We had a great time," Biel says of her showdown with Beckinsale. "That sounds a bit strange, but we were laughing, because we never fight with women. We're usually fighting a monster or some thug."

But don't expect passive-style hair-pulling or lady-like wrestling. "We were both looking at each other, at first, trying to be delicate. But we got over that pretty quickly. I think it will look really cool, because it's not a girlie fight."

Indeed, Farrell sings the praises of Wiseman for giving the film a smart blend of action and adventure that he predicts will please fans of the Dick story and the old Schwarzenegger movie.

"Len's so bright," Farrell says. "He's striving so diligently and nobly to make, not just a spectacular action film, but something that has a great deal of emotional resonance."

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