‘Starship Troopers’: Neill Blomkamp Attached To Direct Remake Of Sci-Fi Off-World War Pic For Sony

After years of zero updates concerning a long-gestating remake of Paul Verhoeven‘s “Starship Troopers“ at Sony Pictures, there is finally a director getting involved!

It’s been revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that South African-Canadian director Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Elysium“) has been tapped by the studio to undertake the ambitious reboot after recently handling the racing pic “Gran Turismo.” This comes after a decade of attempts to get a remake going and being stuck in development limbo until now.

Robert A. Heinlein‘s highly influential novel from 1959 is partly the reason we have the Colonial Marines in James Cameron‘s “Aliens” alongside a wave of video games that featured the soldiers in space concepts in things such as “Halo,” “Helldivers,” and “Starcraft” to name a few. Alongside the idea of human soldiers using advanced battlefield technology in the form of mech-suits which was omitted in the 1997 film but has become a popular element across the sci-fi genre and anime.

READ MORE: Paul Verhoeven Says The Upcoming ‘Starship Troopers’ Remake Should “Fit Very Much In A Trump Presidency”

Taking place after a brutal asteroid attack on Earth killing millions by a group of insect-like aliens referred to by The Federation and The Mobile Infantry as “Bugs,” the movie goes from an homage to the rah-rah military propaganda films of the 1940s to a full-blown subversive satire with the warmongering humans (extreme violence being a calling card of the 1997 original) being revealed as fascist colonizers that are ultimately the villains of the film by the time the credits roll. Leaning into the more xenophobic and fascist aspects of the Heinlein novel to make fun of them, instead of celebrating them, using them to make human colonization effort in the film become the real threat to the galaxy.

However, THR is under the impression that Blomkamp is going to be making more of a faithful retelling by using the novel as the main source material. While a screenwriter wasn’t named in the report, Blomkamp and creative partner/wife Terri Tatchell (“District 9”) have written scripts together in the past.

“Starship Troopers” has been somewhat of a successful franchise despite the original 1997 film being a bit of a box office disappointment as it eventually earned a cult following on home video. After that hiccup, there were two live-action movie sequels (direct-to-video), an animated film called “Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars,” toys, video games (most recent release was “Starship Troopers: Extermination“), an OVA anime from Japan in 1988 that was closer to the novel, and, funny enough, a kid-friendly CGI animated cartoon series, “Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles,” that debuted in 1999.

Sony and producer Neal H. Moritz had an obsession with remaking the work of Verhoeven, previously being behind “Total Recall” and “RoboCop” reboots in the 2010s that had trouble finding audiences as the studio’s PG-13 paint jobs failed to make major dough at the box office. Moritz had been involved with a “Troopers” remake at the studio before this new update.

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We haven’t seen Blomkamp tackle the sci-fi genre on the big screen for a hot moment (outside of his creative shorts at Oats Studios), but this won’t be the first time the filmmaker has gotten involved with studio franchises. His previous attempts included nearly making a “Halo” feature film with producer Peter Jackson and 20th Century Fox along with studio legacy sequels, “Alien 5” and “RoboCop Returns.” Although, we’re a bit more hopeful that Blomkamp is going to be able to pull this one off as it’s hard to imagine a studio IP more suited for the director.