Face/Off Is Being Rebooted

Buena Vista International

‘It’s like looking in a mirror, only… not.’ Paramount are giving a face lift to 1997’s iconic action thriller Face/Off. 

While no actors have been confirmed for facial transplant, the studio has brought on Oren Uziel (the screenwriter behind 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox) to pen the script.

As reported by Deadline, Neal Moritz – most well-known for the Fast & Furious franchise – will join the project along with David Permut – a producer on the original movie – as an executive producer.

Buena Vista International

There’s little cause for an orgasmic hallelujah just yet: the reboot is in very early stages, with no cast or director speculated, never mind attached.

People have been offering up their casting suggestions online. Some have suggested Tilda Swinton and Helena Bonham Carter, others have suggested the Hollywood Chrises – Evans, Hemsworth, Pine and Pratt – all star.

John Woo’s epochal slice of pulp fiction was a stupendously silly rollercoaster: equipped with hilariously unhinged performances, boundless slow-mo and terrific action.

It saw Travolta as Sean Archer, an FBI agent obsessed with catching a sociopathic terrorist named Castor Troy, played by Nicholas Cage.

In order to stop his nemesis from launching another deadly bomb, the agent undergoes transplant surgery – to take the enemy’s face while he’s in a coma.

Watch the trailer below:

All is well until Castor wakes up. As revenge, he takes Agent Archer’s face, and burns all records of his existence – they’re both stuck with their mugs forever.

It’s absolutely ludicrous; reflected more-so through the leading duo’s lax grip on sanity, much to the chuckling pleasure of the viewer.

Buena Vista International

From here, the movie ascends to pure action escapism, and audiences clearly lapped it up. Off an $80 million budget, Face/Off grossed $245m worldwide, becoming Woo’s most successful original film (he would later go on to helm Mission: Impossible II).

The original star-pairing have been hamming it up on-screen in recent years. Travolta’s latest film, The Fanatic – directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst – bombed hard. It took $3,153 from 52 cinemas in its opening weekend, and is currently sitting at 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.

RLJE Films

Cage on the other hand is enjoying a fruitful renaissance: last year, he went full-crazy in Mandy, a phantasmagorical revenge fever-dream. He’ll next be seen in Color Out Of Space, a sci-fi horror based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft.

Let’s hope the atrocious Point Break remake isn’t an indicator of the Face/Off reboot’s destiny.

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Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.