As I suspected, Sony's upcoming Flatliners remake isn't a remake at all but rather a sequel, in which returning original cast member Kiefer Sutherland will indeed reprise his role as Nelson Wright. I'm a genius!
Sutherland confirmed the nature of the project in a recent interview with Metro: “I play a professor at the medical university. It is never stated but it will probably be very clearly understood that I”m the same character I was in the original Flatliners but that I have changed my name and I”ve done some things to move on from the experiments that we were doing in the original film.”
Interestingly, this is the second so-called remake of a beloved '90s genre film to have been revealed as a sorta-sequel in recent months. Earlier this year, The Craft producer Douglas Wick revealed to HitFix exclusively that the new version of the 1996 cult classic is in fact a “20 years later.” It's not yet known whether any of the original actors from that film will reprise their roles in the update.
The original Flatliners centered on a group of medical students who embark on a dangerous series of experiments involving near-death experiences. The Niels Arden Oplev-directed sequel stars Ellen Page, Diego Luna, James Norton, Nina Dobrev and Kiersey Clemons. And no, Julia Roberts will not be joining Kiefer in the new movie (stop it).
[via Bloody Disgusting]