Have you ever seen the movie Awakenings starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro? It’s a film from the early 1990’s about a doctor, played by Williams, that discovers a drug that makes catatonic patients in his hospital, including DeNiro, come back to life.

If you haven’t seen the original, that’s OK, the remake is being filmed in Phoenix as we speak.

Following the latest Hollywood trend, Robert Sarver, in an attempt to make additional revenue, has funded the new version and Steve Kerr has signed on to direct.

After a failed attempt to have Terry Porter play the character Robin Williams originally portrayed, Kerr quickly replaced him with Alvin Gentry. In supporting roles Kerr cast Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Channing Frye and Leandro Barbosa as the main catatonic patients brought back to life.

Filming began last Wednesday and by all accounts, things are going well. Gentry seems to be reveling in the lead role. Nash, Hill, Frye and Barbosa, all coming off poor performances in their last film, seem to not only be playing characters who come back to life, but have brought their careers back to life as well.

Although things are going smoothly in the early stages, there is one dilemma. Sarver and Kerr want to rewrite the ending. In the original film, the drug prescribed by Williams’ character loses its effectiveness over time and the patients return to their original catatonic state. Sarver and Kerr want Gentry’s drug in the remake to permanently cure everyone and restore them to their former glory. The two feel the new ending is more uplifting and that people will enjoy watching it more.

It is unclear whether Gentry and the rest of the films “players” will agree to the re-write or stick to the original script. Production is scheduled through the middle of April. If the changes are made Sarver and Kerr think things could continue possibly into June.