It’s not a remake, it’s a sequel says first-film star Keifer Sutherland. So what can we expect from this not-reboot reboot of the 1990 cult sci-fi…?

Spoilers may follow.

What’s it about?

‘Today is a good day to die” said Keifer Sutherland’s medical student Nelson Wright back in 1990. That was Flatliners, the story of five students who experiment with near-death experiences (flatlining) to see what lies beyond the veil.

Twenty-seven years on and a new batch of students are about to find out that there really is no good day to die. Although, the sequel might have been a lot shorter if Wright had just told the newbies this.

According to the film’s producers, Columbia, the new Flatliners will see five more medical students, again obsessed by what life exists after death, embark on a daring experiment: by stopping their hearts for short periods, each triggers a near-death experience – giving them a firsthand account of the afterlife.

It’s hard to say where and how the new Flatliners will differ from the original. In that feature, the plot explored the characters coming to terms with the bad experiences from their pasts that they re-live when flatlining.

Trailers for 2017’s film look strikingly like a slicker remake – but it’s definitely a sequel, okay?

Who’s in it?

What tells us that Flatliners is the sequel to Flatliners and not just a remake of Flatliners is that Flatliners‘ Sutherland is to return, once again as Nelson Wright, in Flatliners.

He says: “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.”

In that first film, Sutherland was flanked by Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon.

Flatliners 2017 features the promising talents of Juno and X-Men star Ellen Page and James Norton, an actor best known for his TV turns in Grantchester and Happy Valley.

Fresh from Rogue One, Diego Luna joins the pair here, alongside Nina Dobrev (xXxx: Return of Xander Cage) and Kersey Clemons, who will play Iris West in DC’s upcoming Justice League.

Who’s made it?

First-film producer Michael Douglas (yes, that one) is also back for the new Flatliners but it is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo‘s Swedish-director Niels Arden Oplev who helms here, taking on the position from 1990’s Joel Schumacher.

Ben Ripley, best known for writing 2011’s Source Code, adapts Peter Filardi’s script for the twenty-first century, whilst Laurence Mark and Peter Safran join Douglas in the producing seats.

Music for the film has been composed by Nathan Barr, with Eric Kress reuniting with Oplev as editor, having held the same responsibility for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

When’s it out?

Cambodia has the honour of first release, with Flatliners hitting cinemas there on September 25.

In the UK, audiences will have to flatline for another four days, however, before the film is released on September 29.

Watch the trailer here: