Godzilla Vs Kong director Adam Wingard to helm Face Off reboot

Paramount Pictures has roped in Godzilla Vs. Kong director Adam Wingard for the remake of 1997 action thriller Face/Off. Wingard, whose filmmaking credits include movies such as Death Note and The Guest, will direct the movie from a script he penned with Simon Barrett, reported Deadline. 22 Jump Street screenwriter Oren Uzie had written an earlier draft for the project.

Neal Moritz is producing the project for Paramount with David Permut serving as executive producer. Directed by John Woo, the original movie featured actors Nicolas Cage and John Travolta as two arch enemies who exchange each other’s identities (and faces).

When Troy (Cage) boards a plane in Los Angeles that crashes and is severely injured, Archer (Travolta) undergoes surgery to remove his face and replace it with Troy’s in order to go undercover as the criminal. In a twist, Troy then awakes from a coma and forces the doctor who performed the surgery give him Archer’s face.

Also starring Joan Allen, Gina Gershon and Alessandro Nivola, the movie was a commercial hit, earning USD 245 million against its USD 80 million budget.

Wingard is currently awaiting the release of his latest movie Godzilla Vs. Kong, the fourth part in Legendary and Warner Bros’ Monsterverse after Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).

The movie, which will feature Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Eiza Gonzalez, Julian Dennison and Kyle Chandler, will debut on streamer HBO Max and in theatres on March 31.