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After a few false starts over the years, a Starship Troopers reboot is now in active development at Sony’s Columbia Pictures with District 9 and Chappie writer-director Neill Blomkamp leading the charge. Let’s hope it goes better than the invasion of Klendathu.
The Hollywood Reporter shared the exclusive on March 14, stating Blomkamp would write and direct a new adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It’s been reported it won’t stick close to Paul Verhoeven’s highly satirical and exaggerated take and will instead “go back to the source material,” which received criticism over its glorification of the military and a fascist society, among other things.
Despite the initial confusion and many discussions over whether Verhoeven’s 1997 blockbuster was subverting or doubling down on the source material’s politics, the movie was generally well-received and gained a diehard cult following over the years.
Nowadays, it’s consistently brought up as one of the great sci-fi movies from the ‘90s, with the cutting-edge VFX, set, and animatronic work being highlights that have helped it age remarkably well. The same can’t be said for the four dreadful straight-to-home-market sequels that continued the story.
From a business point of view, it’s an interestingly timed move when we consider Sony has just announced a Helldivers movie adaptation. For the unaware: PlayStation’s Helldivers 2 became a massive hit last year, partly thanks to its off-beat tone, which landed extremely close to Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. If the powers that be move forward with both projects after the scripts are approved, it’ll be interesting to see how the movies are differentiated.
Even putting tonal and political similarities aside, the central premise of the co-op online shooter is roughly the same: In the future, a not-at-all fascist dictatorship called the Federation of Super Earth launches huge military campaigns against various threats from other worlds to protect humanity’s way of life, with big horrible bugs being the most iconic enemy faction to be destroyed with extreme prejudice.
Regardless, we’re excited to see what Blomkamp has in store for us. While most cinephiles argue that District 9 (his big-screen debut) is far above the filmmaker’s following sci-fi efforts, Elysium and Chappie were still relatively successful.
In recent years he made sci-fi horror feature Demonic (2021) and a Gran Turismo adaptation (2023) for Sony, alongside numerous shorts and transmedia collaborations, including video games like EA’s Anthem.
Meanwhile, everyone is still wondering if District 10 is happening at any point after a promising update back in 2021. For now, it appears that Blomkamp really wants to put his stamp on alien-blasting sci-fi action and Starship Troopers seems like an ideal fit. In recent times, games like Starship Troopers: Extermination and Terran Command have kept fans of the multimedia franchise busy, so perhaps this big-screen reboot has a fighting chance.
