Named “Douglas Quail” in Dick’s original short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” the character was an office worker who was eventually oped into paranoid intrigue, thinking he was a secret agent with a connection to Mars. It’s the basic boiler plate for what Total Recall would eventually become, and as it turns out, Jeff Bridges wasn’t even his first choice for the job. Richard Dreyfuss, Patrick Swayze and even the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s General Ross himself, William Hurt, were all considered by De Laurentiis to play the lead.
Article source: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2547813/arnold-schwarzenegger-reveals-total-recalls-producer-did-not-want-to-cast-him-originally