When it comes to promotion on Sony's remake of "Total Recall," actor Bryan Cranston is either suspiciously absent or only briefly included in the movie's trailers and TV spots. Of course, it seems criminal to keep the man who is Walter White a secret, especially since Cranston is playing the villain Cohaagen, a name famously screamed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Paul Verhoeven's 1990 original. Finally, in the latest clip from the remake, Cranston has his chance to shine.
During the "Total Recall" panel at Comic-Con Cranston described his character as "a douchebag," which is certainly evident in the clip. This writer was also in attendance at the panel, and Cranston later expanded on his motivation for Cohaagen and how he could change it from the way Ronny Cox portrayed the character in Verhoeven's version. "I approached it to where I didn't set out to want to kill him I just want him to behave. He's like a spoiled teenage son who is acting out," Cranston told the crowd. "And so I was thinking that this guy would be benevolent and if everybody would just listen to my ideas, I would lead you to utopia. But yet there's these terrorists out there that keep this uprising going and they need to be squashed for the better good of the greatest amount of people."
As revealed in the a previous clip, Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell) has gone to memory implanting company Rekall and is suddenly an incredible killing machine. Quaid's "wife" (Kate Beckinsale) tries to take him down, but he escapes, at which point Cohaagen gives her an earful.
"Total Recall" opens on August 3rd. [Hollywood]