Kate Beckinsale Offered A Lead Role In ‘Total Recall’
In news that should surprise no one familiar with the actress’s personal background,Kate Beckinsalehas been offered a central role inLive Free or Die HarddirectorLen Wiseman’s remake/update ofTotal Recall. She’s allegedly up for the part of Lori, the wife toColin Farrell’s leading man Quaid. In Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 telling of the story (also based on thePhilip K. Dickshort storyWe Can Remember It For You Wholesale) Lori was played by Sharon Stone, with Melina — the more predominant of the female leads, whom Quaid meets along his journey — played by Rachel Ticotin. (Breaking Bad’sBryan Cranston, meanwhile,has been castas the villain.)
Beckinsalewasn’t listed among those readingfor the two female leads, but that hasn’t stopped her getting the offer, according toDeadline. And why would it? Wiseman and Beckinsale are married, after all, and it’s not as though they’ve made any sort of effort to keep their personal and work lives separate. (Beckinsale is the lead in theUnderworldseries, the first two of which Wiseman directed, and the most recent two of which he produced/is producing.)
Previouslymentionedas reading for Lori wereKate BosworthandDiane Kruger, whileEva Mendes,Paula Patton, andEva Greenhave been reading for Melina. And more recently,Jessica Bielwas mentionedas a possibility for either part. Looks like Bosworth and Kruger may be out of luck, but word now has it that Mendes andRosario Dawson"are the serious contenders" for Melina.
Beckinsale has yet to accept the offer, but surely it’s more of a formality than anything. She’s busy shootingUnderworld 4: New Dawn, of which Wiseman of course has an intimate involvement, so if there were any scheduling conflicts between that andRecall, wouldn’t he be the first to take note of it? The same can be said for her tentative participation in the upcoming projectThe Trials of Kate McCullough, but for slightly other reasons. (Duh. They’re boning each other.)
Hopefully serving some basis for what we can expect from Beckinsale should she accept the part — and again, it would be curious if she didn’t — here’s what Sharon Stone looked like in the original.
