The upcoming remake of the 1990s thriller Flatliners has already assembled a talented cast, featuring Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton and Kiersey Clemens. For the next addition, however, the production has gone old school and is introducing Keifer Sutherland to the ensemble - the first actor from the original to join up.
Deadline has the scoop on this casting news, reporting that Keifer Sutherland has not yet signed on the dotted line, but that his people and the production are close to making a deal. There isn't much information available about the role that the actor will be playing in the movie, though the report does say that he will be a "seasoned doctor" in the movie. What's unclear is the possibility that he could once again be playing Nelson Wright (making the Flatliners remake less of a remake and more of a sequel).
In the original Flatliners, released in 1990 and directed by Joel Schumacher, Nelson Wright is one of five medical school classmates (Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt) who work on science experiments to try and discover what happens after death. To do this, they volunteer to actually flatline and be resurrected in order to recount their experiences. They start making exciting discoveries, but things start to go sideways as they begin to be haunted by the sins of the past. At the end of the movie, Nelson nearly dies, but is saved at the last minute.
Keifer Sutherland's time as memorable TV hero Jack Bauer appears to be at an end, but he's been keeping busy recently with big screen projects. Most recently he had what was actually one of the funniest parts in Zoolander 2 (though that isn't saying a great deal given the quality of the film). He's also completed work on writer/director Andrew Dosunmu's drama Beat-up Little Seagull, which has him starring opposite Michelle Pfeiffer.
We've been hearing stories about Hollywood wanting to bring back Flatliners for quite a long while now, with buzz starting in 2008 about a potential television series based on the movie. It was in 2011 that this feature version remake started moving, getting a script written by Source Code scribe Ben Ripley. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo's Niels Arden Oplev has been sticking with the project since early 2012, and you have to give him a lot of credit. A lot of projects in development this long simply fade away, but the industry knew it wanted more Flatliners, and that's exactly what it's getting. According to Deadline, production on the picture is starting later this week in Toronto - and while no release date has been announced, we can expect it to land some time in mid-to-late 2017.
