‘Flatliners’ Remake Eyes ‘Rogue One’ Star Diego Luna

Despite the existence of The Lazarus Effect, Sony is still moving forward with their remake of Flatliners. As announced last fall, Ellen Page will lead the redo of the 1990 sci-fi classic, and if you assumed the lack of news about the forthcoming project implied that Page would be playing all the roles herself, Malkovich-style, you were (sadly) wrong — today brings word that Page will not be alone, as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star Diego Luna has joined her for Flatliners.

The Wrap reports that Luna is in talks to join Page for the remake, which will apparently be more diverse than Joel Schumacher’s 1990 film featuring the very-white cast of Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt and William Baldwin. In the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy and the growing scrutiny of Hollywood’s diversity problem (and The Force Awakens proving that you can make a hugely successful blockbuster with an inclusive cast), we hope to see studios become more conscious of their casting.

Page and Luna will star in the Flatliners remake for Niels Arden Oplev (Mr. Robot, the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), who is directing from a screenplay by Ben Ripley (Source Code). The 1990 film centered on a group of medical students who kill and immediately revive one of their peers in an effort to prove or disprove the existence of an afterlife. But as the team takes their experiment further, they are soon met with dangerous — and paranormal — consequences.

This was also the plot of last year’s horror flick The Lazarus Effect, which essentially remade Flatliners in a contemporary context, and while it boasted a great cast (Mark Duplass! Olivia Wilde! Donald Glover!), the film was ultimately half-baked and underwhelming.

So far, the Flatliners remake also features a good cast and promising filmmakers, but we’ve been burned before.