‘Point Break’ Remake Details; Cast Adds Ray Winston

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It’s not just the 1980s that are coming back (see: recent news of a Goonies sequel and Gremlins remake), the 1990s may be following after them. Case in point, a new Jurassic Park movie, Jurassic World, is releasing in 2015, where it looks to be joined by the remake of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 cult action/thriller Point Break.

Bigelow’s film stars a young Keanu Reeves and the late Patrick Swayze as, respectively, a federal agent and the adrenaline-junkie surfer who is under investigation for his possible ties to a band of bank-robbers called the Ex-Presidents, whose calling card are their rubber masks of U.S. political figures like Richard Nixon and Ronal Reagan. Swayze’s original role will be played by Gerard Butler (Olympus Has Fallen) in the new millennium’s take on Point Break. Meanwhile, the lesser-known Luke Bracey (Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe: Retaliation) is up to follow in Reeves’ footsteps, with a potential break-out role.

Variety is reporting that tough-guy character actor Ray Winstone – who can currently be seen on the big screen in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah – is negotiating to join the cast of the Point Break remake, where he would play the role that Gary Busey tackled in Bigelow’s original movie. Second unit filming is already underway on the project ahead of principal photography getting started this June, which means that additional casting announcements should be right around the corner (as well as possibly news of an official 2015 release date being set).

Russell Crowe opposite Ray Winstone in ‘Noah’

In the past the Point Break remake producers – as well as Alcon Entertainment heads – Broderick Johnson and Andrew A. Kosove have claimed that the screenplay by Kurt Wimmer, who also penned the Thomas Crown Affair and Total Recall remakes as well as action genre offerings like Salt, is not a “literal remake” of its predecessor, unlike such vintage movie title “updates” as Craig Brewer’s Footloose (or, more recently, Spike Lee’s Oldboy “re-imagining”). The producers stuck with that stance during an interview with Collider, when they answered the question of whether the remake’s script “follows the original film”:

Not at all. The script only shares in common with the original the characters and the nature of the character dynamic between Utah and Bodhi and their relationship. Everything else about the movie is different. The narrative of the movie is different. While we do have surfing in the film, it is only a subset of the extreme sports that we deal with, including free-climbing, motocross, wing-suiting and so forth…What we found fascinating about the original film, and is preserved in this, is the character work and the relationship between Bodhi and Utah, who are these two gentleman on opposite of the law, but yet, at the same time, share a common bond. That’s the one element that the two movies share.

Beyond that, the only real confirmed plot detail is that the 21st century version of Point Break takes into account changes in the world of extreme sporting over the past two decades and incorporates such popular activities as snowboarding into the mix – which accounts for why the film is shooting in international locations – as well as the improvements in camera technology that allow for capturing extreme sports athletes in motion:

We’ve shot some extraordinary footage with our surfers. And we were in the Italian Alps with the greatest extreme snow boarders in the world, shooting footage. We’ve actually been in photography on the film, beginning our stunt work with our real athletes. This is a movie with a lot of stunts and no stunt people in it because the stunts are way too dangerous for people who are stunt people. We have real athletes who do this, like Jeb Corliss, who’s the greatest wing-suiter in the world. His team will be doing work for us, over the summer, in Switzerland with motocross…

The new Point Break will be released, but not shot, in the 3D and IMAX 3D formats, in order to bring the larger-than-life geography and HD footage of athletes facing down nature’s more dangerous elements to proper life on the big screen. So really, worst cast scenario is that this remake turns out as thematically hollow and/or as uninspired as the worst re-done movies in recent memory, but with a very shiny surface and outer coating on top. Now it’s up to director Ericson Core (Invincible) to exceed that expectation.