Girl With the Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev to remake Flatliners

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I completely forgot that Columbia Pictures had plans to remake 1990’s FLATLINERS.

The last update we had on this was fall of 2011 when I wrote about the initial news. Now it seems that the studio has hired a director to helm the material. Niels Arden Oplev, who piloted the original adaptation of GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO will take on the remake. I think this is a good fit. However, I still think that the ’90 version is sort of great as-is.

For those who haven’t seen it, the film is centered on, “A group of medical students (Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt and William Baldwin) who begin to explore the realm of near death experiences, hoping for insights. Each has their heart stopped and is revived. They begin having flashes of walking nightmares from their childhood, reflecting sins they committed or had committed against them. The experiences continue to intensify, and they begin to be physically beaten by their visions as they try and go deeper into the death experience to find a cure.

As I said before, I thought that the cast they chose for the original was terrific. The dynamic that each one brought to the story fit to a t. Who do you get to top those guys? Also, it was pretty creepy. When my mom used to watch it when I was younger, I’d have to go out of the room during Nelson and David’s nightmares.

Ben Ripley (SOURCE CODE) is still attached as scribe.