Spaced Out

Over the years, “Total Recall” has been linked to a number of filmmakers, studios and stars. Now, insists director Paul Verhoeven, the futuristic adventure “is finally going to happen”--with sets to be built in January on sound stages in Mexico City and filming due to start several months later for Carolco Pictures.

Verhoeven’s first film since “RoboCop,” “Recall” is set on Earth and Mars 100 years from now . It will star Arnold Schwarzenegger as a man who journeys to Mars to investigate inexplicable images of the Red Planet that have troubled his consciousness. Once there, he makes a startling discovery about his past--and present.

Based on the short story “I Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” by Philip K. Dick (“Blade Runner”), “Total Recall” will carry a budget of $30-plus million, according to a well-placed source. Back in 1982, Disney had the pic budgeted at a then-hefty $20 million. Late last year, when director Bruce Beresford left the project two weeks before production was to start, a trade paper report put pre-production costs alone at $8 million.

What attracted Verhoeven to the money-gobbling project?

“I thought there was something metaphysical there. The theme is about reality--what’s real and what isn’t.”

But: “This film isn’t as ‘dark’ as ‘Blade Runner.’ This has a lighter vision. (Philip K.) Dick uses the future with a kind of playfulness. I hope we can bring that across.”