The Guest and Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard has been circling a sequel to Face/Off for a number of years. His frequent writing partner Simon Barrett has been collaborating with him on a script.
The original 1997 movie, directed by John Woo, is something of a touchstone of 1990s action cinema. The decade that gave us the first Mission: Impossible movie, The Rock and Bad Boys along with Con Air and Broken Arrow, was certainly one hell of a time to be a young man who liked going to the movies. Damn, I miss those days.
Wingard had said that the movie would only be made if the original cast returned, specifically the two lead actors in the form of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
The original told the story of Sean Archer (Travolta) and Castor Troy (Cage) as an FBI agent and a freelance terrorist. They undergo an experimental surgery to swap their faces and, in the process, their identities, in an effort to prevent a terrorist atrocity. Things quickly get out of hand and stuff gets blown up real good while slo-mo gunfights happen about every 90 seconds.
Various actor pairings were considered for the parts of Sean Archer and Castor Troy, such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford, and Alec Baldwin and Bruce Willis.
Johnny Depp wanted to play Sean Archer but passed on the role after reading the script. The eventual pairing of Travolta and Cage worked well, and there were rumors of a sequel for years despite the ending of the original movie.
Now scooper Daniel Richtman has that both stars will be back to reprise their roles.
Writer Barrett had previously said he doesn’t believe Cage’s character died in the film’s finale, so this will clearly be his angle this time around. Wingard has always said he wanted it to be a true sequel, and not a cash grab or fan service.
Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon, Dominque Swain, Nick Cassavetes, Harve Presnell, Colm Feore, and John Carroll Lynch rounded out the cast of the Face/Off.
No production dates are known for this sequel as yet.
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