For my money, John Woo's classic 1997 action-thriller Face/Off is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, so it comes as no surprise that Paramount is developing a remake that will feature a new cast rather than original stars John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
Oren Uziel has been tapped to write the script, and Fast and Furious franchise producer Neal Moritz will produce the reboot, while original Face/Off producer David Permut will serve as an executive producer. The new Face/Off should benefit from the technological advances Hollywood has made over the last 20+ years, though to be honest, the thousands of impressive Deep Fake videos that have flooded the internet in recent years threaten to render this plot rather blasé. But hey, as long as they find two movie stars as charismatic as Cage and Travolta, it doesn't really matter what kind of craziness comes out of their mouths. I'll forgive momentary lapses of madness, as evidenced by my love for this movie,
Mike Werb and Michael Colleary wrote the original Face/Off script, which saw FBI agent Sean Archer (Travolta) go undercover by swapping faces with known bad guy Castor Troy (Cage). Inevitably, this poses a problem, both for Castor's brother, Pollux Troy (Alessandro Nivola), and for Archer's family, played by Joan Allen and a rebellious Dominique Swain. Gina Gershon and Nick Cassavetes co-starred as siblings and friends of Castor, and the supporting cast was stacked -- seriously, look at this cast of character actors: Harve Presnell, Colm Feore, CCH Pounder, Robert Wisdom, Chris Bauer, Matt Ross, John Carroll Lynch, Tommy Flanagan, Kirk Baltz and David Warshofsky, plus Thomas Jane, Margaret Cho and James Denton. Casting director Mindy Marin should've won an award for assembling that ensemble!
Uziel has worked with Moritz in the past on 22 Jump Street and Paramount's upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie. He also wrote The Cloverfield Paradox and Freaks of Nature, in addition to writing and directing the Netflix movie Shimmer Lake starring Rainn Wilson. He's represented by Writ Large.
Paramount hasn't been shy about exploiting its library in the wake of its success with Mission: Impossible, as the studio has sequels to Top Gun and Coming to America coming to theaters next year. Deadline broke the news.
