Face/Off

About

Face/Off is a 1997 science fiction action film starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage and directed by John Woo. The film follows an undercover police officer who through an experimental surgery takes the face of a criminal to infiltrate his criminal enterprise. While undercover, the criminal takes the officer's face using the same surgery. In 2019, a reboot of the film was announced.

History

In 1990, screenwriters Mike Werb and Michael Colleary attempted to sell a spec script of Face/Off.^[1] Originally, studios had been interested in actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone of the lead roles. Years later, Hong Kong action filmmaker John Woo became attached to the project, hiring Travolta and Cage for the leads.

On June 27th, 1997, Face/Off was released in the United States.

Reboot

On September 9th, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter^[4] announced that Paramount was developing a reboot of Woo's film. they wrote, "Paramount is bringing back Face/Off. The high-concept action film is getting a reboot via 22 Jump Street scribe Oren Uziel, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed."

Reactions to the news were mixed. Some prefer that they did not remake the film, while others offered mock suggestions for who should star in the remake. For example, Twitter^[5] user @BrandyLJensen tweeted, "Face/Off but it’s Henry Cavill and Matt Bomer and you literally can’t tell the difference." The tweet received more than 10,000 likes and 900 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Reception

Face/Off was a critical and box office success. The film grossed more than $245 million on an $80 million budget, becoming the 11th highest-grossing film of 1997.^[2] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, ^[3] the film has a score of 92% fresh (based on 86 reviews). Their critical consensus reads, "John Travolta and Nicolas Cage play cat-and-mouse (and literally play each other) against a beautifully stylized backdrop of typically elegant, over-the-top John Woo violence."

Search Interest

External References