Sony Delays New Flatliners Movie

According to Exhibitor Relations (via bloody-disgusting), Sony's new Flatliners movie — which was believed to be a remake, but now appears to be a loose sequel to the 1990 film — has been pushed back a month. It was originally set to open on August 18th, 2017; it will now open on September 29th, 2017.

Okay, so why is the new Flatliners movie a sequel? Well, Kiefer Sutherland (24, Designated Survivor), who starred in the original, confirmed in a July interview that he is reprising his role of Nelson Wright. "I play a professor at the medical university," told Metro. "It is never stated but it will probably be very clearly understood that I'm the same character I was in the original 'Flatliners' but that I have changed my name and I've done some things to move on from the experiments that we were doing in the original film."

Aside from Sutherland, the cast will also feature Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton and Kiersey Clemons. It is being directed by Niels Arden Oplev.

About 1990's Flatliners:

Are you afraid to die? Kiefer Sutherland isn't. He's an ambitious, charismatic medical student who persuades classmates Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon to take part in a reckless experiment. To see if there is life after death, they will kill themselves: temporarily shut down ("flatline") their heart and brain functions to briefly experience clinical death. After Sutherland survives the first experiment, the others flatline for increasingly longer intervals. But their horror begins when they realize that although they've come back alive... they haven't come back alone. Flatliners is a chilling suspense thriller of obsession, fear and redemption that will take you across the line to a place where terror lives forever.

The original was written by Peter Filardi and directed by Joel Schumacher. It starred Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt.