Paramount to Give ‘Face/Off’ Makeover With ‘Fast and Furious’ Producer
The 1997 action thriller starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage became director John Woo’s biggest original hit with a $245 million revenue globally and is often dubbed his best Hollywood film.
AceShowbiz –
Paramount Pictures is ready to give a fresh take on one of its hit films, “Face/Off“. The studio is putting a reboot of the 1997 John Woo-directed action thriller in development with Oren Uziel (“22 Jump Street“, “Sonic the Hedgehog“) being set to write the script. Uziel has also been tapped to pen the second “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu” movie for Legendary and Warner Bros.
“Fast and Furious” franchise producer Neal Moritz will produce the reboot, while original “Face/Off” producer David Permut will serve as executive producer. No actor is attached to the project just yet, but John Travolta and Nicolas Cage who starred in the original film are not expected to return, since it’s said that the remake will feature a brand new cast.
“Face/Off” centers around FBI agent Sean Archer (Travolta), who is obsessed with catching a homicidal sociopath named Castor Troy (Cage), who is responsible for killing his son. After a plane which Troy boards crashes and he’s in a coma, Archer undergoes a surgery that gives him Troy’s face, body and voice.
He then goes to a max security prison to convince Troy’s partners to reveal the location of a bomb. The plan goes awry when Troy wakes up from his coma and forces the surgeons to give him Archer’s face. Hence, the two switch places. Archer must now break out of prison and expose what Troy has done, as Troy takes over Archer’s personal and professional life.
The movie earned critical acclaim for its acting performances (especially Cage and Travolta) and stylized action sequences among other things. It’s often dubbed Woo’s best Hollywood film and gave him his biggest original hit with a $245 million revenue globally. A commercial hit, the action thriller was the 11th highest-grossing film of 1997. It was also nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Sound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger and Per Hallberg) at the 70th Academy Awards.