Ethan Hawke to make cameo in Total Recall remake; Mars no longer in the story

It's sortof hilarious to read THR stating that Ethan Hawke's upcoming cameo in Len Wiseman's Total Recall remake is meant to be a "secret", even though they just plastered it all over the internet. Not that I see what the big deal is. Nobody's going to be racing on to Twitter to talk about how cool it was to see the wishy washy guy who took a lot of crap from Denzel Washington in Training Day. It's really not a big deal. Hawke's role in the film, which has Colin Farrell as possible spy Douglas Quaid, is unclear at this point.

The most interesting part of THR's story doesn't have anything to do with Hawke, but just how closely this version of the film will follow Philip K. Dick's vision. According to them, not much at all. One of the big questions was just how much the planet Mars would factor in, with conflicting reports saying that it would be a component and others saying it won't. The trade gives the impression that it's been completely jettisoned, which means we won't get to see Farrell's eyes pop out of their sockets. Bummer...

"The new story ditches the Martian storyline and instead involves nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai, with Douglas Quaid (Farrell) a factory worker in the latter who begins to believe he is a spy, although he doesn't know for which side."

If you remember the 1990 story there's also some stuff about memory implants and rebel factions, all of which I assume will be included in this version.  Bryan Cranston is set to play the bad guy, Vilos Cohaagen. Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel are both in talks for the two female leads, previously filled out by Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin.

Total Recall is due to land in theaters on August 3rd 2012.