‘Flatliners’ Remake Gets Huge Star To Return — Kiefer Sutherland Is Back, But Who Will He Play?
As if there aren’t enough remakes and reboots in the world of Hollywood, some of them at least try to pay respect to the original films. The 1990 cult classic Flatliners had an excellent young cast filled with stars who went on to much bigger things. One of those stars is Kiefer Sutherland, and he will now be returning for the remake, but who is he going to play?
Deadline reported that one of the original members from the first version of Flatliners is coming back, and it was a pretty close call. It appears as if there were some serious scheduling conflicts that wouldn’t let Sutherland join the cast of the remake right away, but some things were able to be worked out.
Sutherland has a new series called Designated Survivor coming to ABC this fall, and it has truly taken up a lot of his time. A lot of people hoped he would be able to appear in the Flatliners remake, but his new show was casting a lot of doubt on that.
Original #Flatliners star #KieferSutherland has joined the remake, confusing everybody: https://t.co/PON0JGjSnL pic.twitter.com/dMSvTRUwdr
— Flickreel (@Flickreel) July 8, 2016
Sutherland’s deal with Sony is not completely sealed as of yet, but he has committed to appearing in the film. All that is known as of now is that he will play the role of a “seasoned doctor” in the remake.
He joins a cast that includes Ellen Page, Nina Dobrev, Diego Luna, Kiersey Clemons, and James Norton.
The original Flatliners from 1990 starred Sutherland along with Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt. It followed five medical students who purposely stop their hearts so they are able to experience near-death experiences and learn more about it, but things get a lot more serious than they ever imagined.
As they continue to work on their experiments, the group starts to get to a level that becomes extremely dangerous and even causes them to come face-to-face with their past sins. This also leads to paranormal situations they must contend with after crossing over to the other side.
In the original film from 1990, Sutherland played the role of Nelson Wright and was the unannounced leader of his little group. He is the one who creates the project and ends up recruiting Rachel McManus (Roberts), David Labraccio (Bacon), Randy Steckle (Platt), and Joe Hurley (Baldwin) to join him.
All of them believe that they are experienced and smart enough to survive “flat-lining” and learning more about what it is like to die. Trying to mess with the world of immortality is something they were never prepared for, though, and it makes them have to deal with the wrongs they’ve done in the past.
Flatliners may not be critically acclaimed, but it has developed a huge cult following since its release almost 27 years ago. The cast was stellar and it was only the beginning of outstanding careers for virtually everyone that was in it.
At this point, there is no word of Roberts, Baldwin, Bacon, or Platt appearing in the remake due out next year, but there’s still time for a hopeful cameo.
There are many people who are not thrilled with remakes and reboots of past films as they feel it is a true lack of creativity. Sony Pictures is trying to do things rights with their new version Flatliners with a talented young cast and respect to the 1990 movie. Kiefer Sutherland having a role will add more credibility to the film and also get a lot of fans of the original to head out to theaters to watch.
[Image via Columbia Pictures]
