You may have forgotten, but half a decade ago, producer Neil Moritz (the ‘Fast & Furious‘ franchise, “xXx,” “Stealth,” “S.W.A.T.”) snapped up the rights and plotted a remake of “Starship Troopers,” with fellow producer Toby Jaffe also working on the project. Writers Zack Stentz (“Thor” and “X-Men: First Class”) and Edward Miller were tasked with knocking out a draft of the script, and a couple years ago described their movie as “[l]ess a satire, and more an actual adaptation of the [Robert A.] Heinlein novel. ‘An Officer And A Gentleman‘ in power armor.” Well, clearly that take didn’t fly, as the project is now moving forward with a new team.
Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, who are the pens behind the upcoming big-screen “Baywatch,” are the latest writers on the remake. There’s no word yet on who will follow in Paul Verhoeven‘s footsteps to direct, but if you’re wondering what direction the movie might take, a few years back Jaffe said they wanted something more flag-waving than the 1997 film.
“Verhoeven took it from one extreme and made it almost comical, whereas our job, as I see it, is to be a little more faithful to the book, and ground it a little more. The novel is extremely widely read, even today; it’s on school and university reading lists, and it’s read at all the military academies in the United States. Verhoeven had an agenda that made his movie a critique of fascism, whereas I think Heinlein was writing from the perspective of someone who had served in World War II as an American soldier, and was writing it at the time of the Korean War. Y’know, one man’s fascism is another man’s patriotism…,” said Jaffe.
We’ll see if Swift and Shannon can make the movie that Moritz and Jaffe envision, but five years have passed already, and no one seems to be in any great hurry. And after the flops of previous Verhoeven remakes “Total Recall” (which Moritz produced) and “RoboCop,” maybe it does make sense for everyone to take their time and make sure they have a good idea before cameras get rolling.