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Following his work in the horror genre with movies like You’re Next, The Guest and Death Note, Adam Wingard was brought in to direct Godzilla vs. Kong, the fourth entry in the MonsterVerse franchise. The colossal clash between these pop culture titans is only weeks away from release, but Wingard is already looking to the future with his next project. Word’s come in that he’ll be tackling the Face/Off reboot.
It was announced in September 2019 that 1997’s Face/Off, starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, was getting the reboot treatment, and at the time, 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox’s Oren Uziel was attached to write the screenplay. But things have changed since then, with Deadline reporting that Paramount Pictures has hired Adam Wingard to both direct and co-write the Face/Off reboot with Simon Barrett “from scratch.” Neal Moritz is attached to produce and David Permut will serve as executive producer.
Directed by John Woo and written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, the original Face/Off was a wild action movie that saw John Travolta’s Sean Archer, an FBI agent, literally swapping faces with Nicolas Cage’s Castor Troy, the sociopathic terrorist who murdered Sean’s son, through an experimental transplant surgery as part of a mission to find a bomb Castor hid in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the mission is severely compromised when Castor awakens from his coma and starts causing trouble while disguised as Sean. Face/Off’s cast also included Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon, Dominique Swain and Nick Cassavetes, among others.
Make no mistake, Face/Off is one of the more bonkers ‘90s action offerings, but it was met with a lot of positive critical reception and made over $245 million worldwide off a reported $80 million budget. It also marked John Woo’s first Hollywood movie where he was given major creative control, and as a result, it’s often labeled as one of his best movies, if not at the top of the list. Nearly 25 years after Face/Off’s release, now Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett will reinterpret the story for a new generation. Wingard later clarified on Instagram that rather than this being a full-blown reboot, the new Face/Off movie will be a direct sequel to the original.
No details have been provided yet on how the new Face/Off will stand out from its predecessor other than starring a new cast, but evidently Paramount is confident that Adam Wingard is the right person to deliver a fresh take on the material. As far as his next immediate movie, Godzilla vs. Kong, is concerned, this will be the first time these two beasts have come to blows in a Hollywood production, having previously done so in the 1962 Japanese movie King Kong vs. Godzilla. Wingard directed off a script by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, and the cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Eiza González, among others.
While we wait for more news on what’s in store for the Face/Off reboot, you can see how Adam Wingard’s directorial efforts on Godzilla vs. Kong turned out when the movie hits theaters and HBO Max on March 31 (you can use this link to sign up for the streaming service). Our 2021 release schedule is also available for you to learn what other movies are supposed to open later this year.
