District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is the latest filmmaker tasked with reviving Starship Troopers. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Blomkamp’s Starship Troopers isn’t a reboot of the 1997 film by Paul Verhoeven, but rather takes its roots from the original Starship Troopers novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Blomkamp is triple double duty as writer, director, and producer, where he will be joined on producing duties with his wife, Terri Tatchell, who co-wrote District 9 and Chappie. Blomkamp came to fame with 2009’s District 9, a sci-fi movie starring Sharlto Copley that quickly became a box office success off of a modest budget of $30 million.
Sources state Neill Blomkamp is sticking to the source material of the novel for his take on Starship Troopers instead of attempting to remake the Paul Verhoeven iteration of the movie. Starship Troopers follows the story of humans going to war with bug-like aliens. The Robert A. Heinlein novel won a Hugo Award for best novel, but also drew criticism for promoting fascism. Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers played up the pro-military aspects of the story and became a cult classic that is often mentioned as a favorite among sci-fi aficionados.
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Neill Blomkamp’s recent big franchise offering was Sony’s Gran Turismo, an adaptation of the popular racing video game. It grossed over $122 million worldwide.
Starship Troopers star Casper Van Dien recently lobbied for the franchise to return as a series. The actor played square-jawed infantryman Johnny Rico, and has lent his voice to the Starship Troopers: Extermination and Starship Troopers: Continuum video games. When ComicBook asked Van Dien about his thoughts on Starship Troopers returning in some type of revival, he said, “You know, there’s been a resurgence of Starship Troopers, even, you know, aside from the other films that we did that were smaller and everything like this, there’s been a huge resurgence. I think it’s due to the video games and, you know, like holdovers to Starship Troopers, Extermination, and now Continuum.”
Van Dien also spoke of the impact of Verhoeven’s ’90s classic. “I think there’s been a resurgence of people revisiting this movie,” Van Dien said. “And unfortunately, the political commentary is still relevant today. And I think that is an interesting, you know, praise to the filmmaker [Verhoeven] again because he’s got something that has legs.” Interestingly enough, there was talk of a Starship Troopers TV series in the works back in 2017 that would have reportedly brought back the original cast
We’ll have to wait and see how Neill Blomkamp will tackle Starship Troopers. He has a proven track record of finding success with sci-fi efforts, whether they be his own creations (District 9, Chappie) or other projects. There’s also enough of a fanbase behind Starship Troopers to warrant another take on the iconic franchise, even if it won’t follow Paul Verhoeven’s version.
Are you excited to see a new Starship Troopers movie from Neill Blomkamp? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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