Bruce Willis To Play His Better Looking Self In Sci-Fi Thriller "The Surrogates"

Variety has reported that Bruce Willis is set to star in the sci-fi thriller The Surrogates to be directed by Jonathan Mostow.

I have mentioned being a fan of Mostow before because of the work he did in Breakdown and U-571. He also directed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The screenplay for The Surrogates, based on a graphic novel by Robert Venditti from Top Shelf Comix, was written by Michael Ferris and John Brancato, who also collaborated with Mostow on T3.

Willis was originally set to star in Pinkville, a drama about the My Lai massacre, for Oliver Stone, but United Artists put that project on hold due to the writer’s strike. Willis moved into this project for Disney. The studio is eyeing a February production start in Boston.

The Surrogates is set in the near future (2054, I believe), where humans live in isolation, and, rather than making the effort to step out of doors themselves, interact through surrogate robots who are basically “better-looking versions” of themselves (yeah, seems like that could be near future). Willis will (once again) play a cop who uses his surrogate (his better half) to investigate the murders of other surrogates. As the mystery of a conspiracy unfolds he will have to do the unthinkable and actually leave his house for the first time in years in order to solve the crimes.

It all sounds pretty darn cool to me. I’m much more excited about the possibilities of this film than I was about the Oliver Stone war drama. I picture it as a cross between Minority Report and Blade Runner although I’ll admit that I haven’t read the comics and really don’t know the first thing about the tone of the story. I will definitely be keeping my eyes on this one.