Memorable update of a sci-fi classic?

TOTAL RECALL

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Colin Farrell, Bokeem Woodbine, Bryan Cranston

Director: Len Wiseman.

Certificate: 12A.

What's it about? Bored factory worker Doug Quaid (Farrell) visits Rekall, a company that can implant virtual memories. He soon starts to suspect he's a spy but is not sure what side he is on and what is actually real, and when he returns home, his wife Lori (Beckinsale) tries to kill him.

Released: Wednesday, August 29.

D ressed in a sleek black playsuit and killer heels, with her glossy, dark waves flowing freely, Kate Beckinsale looks a million dollars.

The actress, who turns 40 next summer, clearly takes care of herself but it helps that she has been filming two action movies back-to-back.

She had barely wrapped on Underworld: Awakening, the fourth instalment in the cult vampire series, when she went to work on the remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Total Recall just four days later.

Most actresses would be forgiven for wanting a break but when it's your husband pleading with you join his film, saying no is harder.

"It was a bit crazy," says Beckinsale, who plays Lori in the film adaptation of sci-fi short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, by Phillip K Dick.

From director Len Wiseman's point of view, the timing could not have been better, as he had always pictured his wife playing Lori.

Beckinsale said: "It was actually weird, because when Len was planning the movie at a really early stage, he needed some voices and my daughter's dad Michael Sheen and I happened to be in the house and helped out.

"So in a sense, I was involved right from the get-go. But then I wasn't going to be available for this movie, I was doing Underworld and we had kind of made our peace with that.

"At the last moment, they pushed Total Recall back by a couple of weeks."

Beckinsale had to learn a complex fight scene between her, Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel, who plays goodie Melina.

"As the director's wife, you don't want to be the one that keeps messing it up, so I was extra nervous," she said.

"And if I hit Colin, whatever, but who wants to be the person responsible for breaking Jessica Biel's nose?" she added, giggling.

Beckinsale enjoyed playing her first villain, saying: "It's mandatory for British actors at some point to play a bad guy in an American movie."

However, she admits it was a little awkward kissing Farrell in front of her husband. "We all sort of swapped who was married to who," she said.

Beckinsale met Wiseman when he directed her in the first Underworld film, and she swapped her home town of London for Los Angeles when they married in 2004. It took some getting used to and she still gets "really homesick".

She said: "Obviously, I was madly in love with Len and I was very happy to be in that relationship, but I did suddenly go, 'Oh, where did all the people go that knew me before everyone started taking pictures of me in the grocery store?' As a grown-up, it takes a bit to make really good friends."

Although promotional duties have now brought her back to England, Total Recall was shot in Toronto. Beckinsale brought daughter Lily and Lily's friend Molly along for the ride.

She said: "They were both just 12, and Jessica and I taught the two girls the whole fight which, embarrassingly, they learnt in about 19 minutes.

"The costume department made them little versions of our costumes and they filmed the fight, so that was a high point for me."

ARRIVAL: Kathrin Beckinsale was born on July 26, 1973, in Finsbury Park, London.

ON A PA: Her father Richard was also an actor, best known for starring in prison sitcom Porridge. He died suddenly of a heart attack aged 31.

LANGUAGES: She studied French and Russian literature at New College, Oxford and was once directed in a play by fellow student and The King's Speech director, Tom Hooper.

FAMILY: She's proud that her daughter Lily has an English accent even though she's growing up in Los Angeles.