In an interview with Metro UK, Kiefer Sutherland confirmed that the upcoming Flatliners film is not a remake, but rather a sequel to the original 1990 supernatural thriller. Sutherland (along with Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt) starred as a medical student who experimented with bringing people back from the dead, with dire consequences. Here’s what the actor had to say about his role in the new film:
“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. I loved making the first film and when I was asked if I would be interested in taking part in this, it didn’t take more than a minute to say yes.”
The new film will star Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, and Kiersey Clemens, and will be directed by Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s Niels Arden Oplev. The film is has an expected released date of August 18, 2017.