Colin Farrell: We should be comparing Total Recall to The Dark Knight

Depending on the strength of your memory, any number of Arnold Schwarzeneggers one-liners from the iconic 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall might spring to mind. Screw you, was a good one, uttered with gusto when Arnie impaled a baddy on a large drill. As was Consider that a divorce, as he dispatched his wife-cum-would-be- assassin, played by Sharon Stone, with a bullet to the noggin.

That is a really funny film, recalls Colin Farrell. Arnold was the king of the one-liners. Farrell is stepping into Schwarzeneggers old size nines (or size 16s, possibly) in this months Total Recall remake, though he says the witty one-liners have been given the heave-ho. This version of Total Recall, while drawing from the same source material as the original, is an altogether darker and more dystopian action movie.

Ours isnt as funny as the original, says Farrell. The original was intentionally funny and Im glad they didnt make me do lines like Consider that a divorce. Although they made me say a version of that I think were separated but I dont think itll get many laughs.

Tonally, its played a lot more seriously than the original was, adds the Irishman. I think we should be comparing it to The Dark Knight, Chris Nolans stuff the last two or three films hes done.

Kate Beckinsale stars opposite Colin Farrell in Total Recall (Picture: Michael Gibson)

Total Recall director Len Wiseman (Underworld; Underworld: Evolution; Live Free Or Die Hard) would be flattered by the comparison and he certainly feels as though his vision for the movie is closer to the atmosphere of Philip K Dicks 1966 short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, than director Paul Ver! hoevens kitsch original.

I always thought the source material had a very different feel to Verhoevens film, says Wiseman, who has ditched the journey to Mars in the new movie and made a lot more of the futuristic landscape in which the story plays out. I wanted to go with a realistic future.

He also wanted to go with a sexy cast and recruited both Jessica Biel and his wife, Kate Beckinsale, to star opposite Farrell. Biel is his love-interest and would-be saviour and Beckinsale is his missus and would-be killer. Kissing the directors wife was tricky, says Farrell, smiling, although beating her up was OK.

When the film first went into production, Beckinsale was finishing work on Underworld Awakening and was not available. She was set to cameo as the films famous three-breasted lady. When schedules changed, however, she was able to step up to the part of Lori.

So my husband was able to cast me as the bitch-wife from hell, she says with a chuckle. I was like: Thanks Len. Her character has been expanded from the first film and she survives a lot longer than Stones incarnation, too, who Arnie divorces in the first act. Like Stones character, however, she is as hard as nails and delivers plenty of physical pain to both Farrells hero and Biels heroine.

VIDEO: Check out the Total Recall trailer

Indeed, the face-off between the two women is one of the main action scenes. And it was one of the politest of violent fights youve ever seen, says Beckinsale. Jessica and I were going: Ooh, Im so sorry, No, no, its my fault, its my fault.

In a way, I was quite frightened. You see Jessica, this beautiful girl, but then you need to throw 17 punches at that nose. I couldve been sued into my next lifetime.

Biel laughs. Kate and I normally fight giant men, monsters, vampires or weird creatures, she says, but here we were dealing with long hair and bra straps and tight ou! tfits, so! that was interesting.

The future Mrs Timberlake stars as resistance fighter Melina, played in the original by Rachel Ticotin. Though the film is very different, she is still a warrior and still a survivor and she is quite ballsy, says Biel. In the original she didnt take any crap from Arnold and I dont think this character takes any crap either.

Len made the right choice by really rebooting the idea and not trying to copy the first movie because that really was a moment and you dont want to mess with it. It was of its time. Our films very different and very cool.

Total Recall is out on Wednesday.

Bruce Willis will be returning for Die Hard 5 (Picture: Stock Image)

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