14 DAY TRIAL // Hollywood seems to be running out of original ideas or, if it’s not, it’s certainly not interested in putting more originals out there. As the remake fever is reaching a peak, here’s another title to add to the list of classics that’s being brought back for modern audiences, to more or less disappointing results.
Sony is remaking its 1990 hit “Flatliners,” Variety confirms. If you’re a child of the ‘90s, you must know it, but if not, here’s what it’s about: it’s about a group of medical students who decide to journey into the afterlife to see what answers they can find there.
Each one goes under and the others must bring him or her back before it’s not too late - but not too soon either, or their efforts would have been in vain. After a couple of successful literal come-backs from the dead, the experiments start to go wrong.
The original cast included now-Hollywood heavyweights Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon, with director Joel Schumacher at the helm. It was met with mixed reactions, but time has turned it into a cult classic.
Sony wants younger audiences to experience some of what made “Flatliners” great and it’s turning to Ellen Page for assistance. I will assume that she will be playing the only female medical student in the original, played by Roberts, but the trade publication says nothing in this sense.
Work on the remake is quite advanced, with Sony locking in Niels Arden Oplev (“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the Swedish original) to direct, off a script by Ben Ripley.
