By I always knew this day would come. According to a report from Deadline, John Woo’s infamous 1997 Nicolas Cage/John Travolta action thriller cult classic Face/Off will get a reboot. No matter what happens, this film will be some combination of atrocious and amazing, but what the ratio will be has yet to be determined.
The remake is courtesy of Paramount Pictures, and has attached screenwriter Oren Uziel (Sonic the Hedgehog and reportedly a Supergirl movie), producer Neil Moritz (Fast & Furious), and executive producer David Permut. For those who somehow haven’t heard the premise of the original film, it involved a sociopathic drug criminal played by Cage and an FBI agent portrayed by Travolta. After catching Cage’s character, Travolta’s character goes through an unprecedented procedure to switch faces with him to go undercover; the plan obviously goes awry.
What matters more is whoever the hell will make and star in this movie. Woo has a very distinct style—the original film had loads of shots that featured people jumping to the side and shooting a gun in slow motion, usually accompanied with birds flying in the foreground and background, and probably with unrealistic explosions. Assuming Cage and Travolta won’t be back in their iconic roles, there are still a number of working actors today that can take on the mantle.
May I suggest Sharlto Copley, Christian Bale, Joaquin Phoenix (coming out of Joker), Tom Hardy, and Edward Norton? Like, all five of them. Just have them constantly switching faces with each other, both on and off-screen. It’ll get to the point where the characters don’t even know who they are anymore. Call it Face/Off Again, or The Face/Off.
I expect a mail in the check soon, Hollywood.
Paramount Putting A New Face On Action Hit ‘Face/Off’ [Deadline]