The total recall remake was nothing like the original story...hell, mars wasn't even part of the story
Total Recall was based on a science fiction story by Phillip K Dick.
The remake was supposedly much closer to the
1966 story, or so I read in a blog last year. However, googling the original story, it sounds like it wasn't quite similar to either, and did involve Mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Remember_It_for_You_WholesaleBut what I am saying is that the remake was so different from the original movie that I could enjoy it in it's own right, as a totally different story.
Likely the publicist for the remake spread disinformation that it was closer to the original story to lessen the sting of it sucking compared to the original movie.