The Face/Off remake has a director, one who is experienced with a very particular face-off. Adam Wingard, who just directed Godzilla vs. Kong, will helm Paramount Pictures’ upcoming remake of the beloved 1990s action hit that starred John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The new version has been in the works since at least 2019 and is not expected to feature Cage and Travolta.
Wingard will write the film with his creative partner, Simon Barrett, reports Deadline. Oren Uziel (The Cloverfield Paradox) was first hired to script Face/Off in September 2019, but Wingard and Barrett have reportedly scrapped Uziel’s work and are starting fresh. Neil Mortiz (Fast & Furious) and David Permut are the executive producers.
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Wingard’s career has mostly centered on horror films, with credits like A Horrible Way to Die (2010), You’re Next (2011), segments in two V/H/S anthology movies, and the 2016 Blair Witch film. However, he was picked to direct Godzilla vs. Kong, which will be released in theaters and HBO Max on March 31. He is also reportedly directing another horror movie, I Saw the Devil, which centers on a rogue secret agent tracking down a serial killer.
The original Face/Off was directed by John Woo and was nominated for the Best Sound Effects Oscar. It was written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, who crafted an incredibly preposterous plot. Travolta played FBI agent Sean Archer who was so dedicated to capturing homicidal terrorist Castor Troy (Cage) that he decides to get facial transplant surgery to go into prison to find out where a bomb Castor planted is. Of course, nothing goes to plan and then things go really haywire when Castor gets Archer’s original face and starts wreaking havoc. Face/Off was the biggest hit of Woo’s career, earning $245 million worldwide, so it is understandable why Paramount would be interested in remaking it.
While Cage will not be in the Face/Off remake, he will be seen in plenty of other projects. The Oscar-winner recently filmed The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a meta-comedy in which he plays a fictional version of himself. In the movie, Cage agrees to attend a Mexican billionaire’s birthday party, and the billionaire turns out to be a drug kingpin. Other stars in the film include Neil Patrick Harris, Pedro Pascal and Tiffany Haddish. Lionsgate will release the movie on March 19.
