Columbia Pictures is plotting a new Starship Troopers movie, setting District 9 filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to write and direct an adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel story by Robert A. Heinlein.
There better be a co-ed shower scene in this one as well.
Please have a co-writer. Blomkamp is an amazing visual director but he needs a writer to keep him in check.
This combination just feels right. Like peeing outdoors.
Honestly I would agree if Blomkamp hadn’t been on a downward slope since District 9. Granted, I haven’t watched that Gran Turismo movie he did. But Demonic was straight up terrible.
Interesting you say that. I loved District 9 then the next thing I saw from him was ‘Oates Studios’ shorts; which turned me right off the guy. Billed as post apocalyptic stories… But it was more like strong shock/gore/horror stuff which just seemed to go for straight up nastiness with no decent story, message or social commentary that I could discern. Just seems like the product of a fevered mind making horrible imagery for the sake of it. Not for me, and I’m not sure who it would be for really. Nothing positive at all.
I don’t think I’ll watch another thing by him. Really disappointing since District 9 was fantastic.
Watch the Gran Turismo movie, I’m a racing and car nut so I’m biased, but its very good.
I… am assuming / hoping they will just pretend all the … basically straight to dvd sequels… do not exist.
Ok, actually read the article: It’s going straight to the actual source material, the 1959 book… which… could actually be pretty interesting, there are a lot of non total parody ways you could portray that future world, and you could of course put your own spin on it and change some plot or worldlore or characters and come out with your own thing.
Blade Runner, for example… diverges fairly significantly, in many ways, from the actual book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Of course, it could also be terrible, or mid. Who knows! But it seems more like its going to be a different attempt at adapting the book to film, not a sequel to the Veerhoven movie.
Maybe we’ll get Lynch Dune, maybe we’ll get Villenueve Dune, maybe we’ll get SyFy channel Dune, lol.
Oh God, I dread that book. Most of it takes place in a class room and it’s a long diatribe about how you shouldn’t be allowed to vote if you haven’t served. Most of the characters have prosthetic limbs and boast about their sacrifices but the absurdity of the whole situation seems to allude the author. This film is going to be terrible if Neil Blomkamp writes it.
I just finished that book a while ago, and I’ve read a ton of Heinlein’s work. It would be interesting to see it put on the big screen in something more true to the book, but I gotta admit that I really like the movie too.
I really hope Blomkamp takes the satirical approach and isn’t like “I wanna make a Starship Troopers movie that is much more like the book.”
I just want him to do the first movie over again. Ive read the book and while it was a pioneer I dont love it.
I’m sorry to say it but I do want the movie of the Cadian 8th fighting the Tyranids over again just bigger, better and more hardcore. Sometimes I want dumb shooting and explosions war movies without the emotional weight of knowing that the people being shot probably didnt want to be at war either.
Thats why I love Battle for Los Angeles. Theres no “bad guys are people too”.
Yeah the last thing the world needs right now is more auth/fash propaganda.
Came here to say I can’t handle his films right now
I think “propaganda” is less accurate than “thought experiment”. Heinlein centered his books around a lot of different political backdrops. Pretty sure he wrote Starship Troopers in the middle of writing the free-love-hippie-commune “propaganda” Stranger in a Strange Land.
Still, probably best not to try to hide subtle critique in something that looks like propaganda.
Nailed it. If Heinlein loved fascism because he wrote Starship Troopers, how the hell does one explain Stranger in a Strange Land?!
Maybe he was simply a fascist, tree-hugger, authoritarian, free love, socialist, commie, right-wing, left-wing nutcase? I grok a wrongness.
That was the same guy?!?
I always looked at it as a demonstration of a military facist utopia. I actually wrote an outline for a prequel to it as a writing exercise in highschool and it got really good marks.
Your teacher was terrible if she didn’t tell you
I read the book because I read books, not because it was assigned reading. The creative writing assignment was something about creating a plot outline around an existing book or film. So I picked both and wrote a story about what could simultaneously unite the world under one banner and push us towards a militaristic society. It was about 25 years ago so honestly I cant remember much.
I don’t think “fascist” or “utopia” are accurate descriptions. With Heinlein, his political settings are less “the world should be like this” than “hey what if the world was like this?”. Again, he wrote it in the middle of writing SiaSL, which demonstrates basically the polar opposite worldview. To interpret ST as fascist propaganda seems a bit myopic.
Wow I made an arse about of that comment. Posting while tired… sorry
Thats how I feel the movie presents Heinleins book, as a facist utopia, like yes it CAN look amazing on the surface but the cracks in the veneer arent hard to see and it still runs on the blood of people wanting to climb the ladder only instead of cash for capitalism its citizenship in their society.
Aren’t there a bunch of sequels in the books?
I don’t believe Heinlein ever wrote a sequel to Starship Troopers, though certainly the “military science fiction” genre owes a lot to that book.
Ed Neumeier (who wrote Robocop and the 97 movie) however, wrote and directed the 2 live action film sequels. The second is, from memory, God awful and not worth a watch. The third is ALSO God awful as I recall, but it has the advantage of going pretty big with its ideas, so there’s a bit of zany fun to be had. Plus, despite it being one of the defining features of the book, it’s also the first time (I think) power armor makes an appearance in the film franchise. Casper van Dien’s star had fallen sufficiently by that point too, so he also reprises his role as Rico, which is another point in its favor.
There also a handful of computer animated movies and a TV series that I believe originated in Japan. They are about on par, quality wise, with the CGI Resident Evil movies. Depending on your tastes, that could either be a mild endorsement or a resounding condemnation.
Its been YEARS but my memory of the starship troopers sequels is similar to yours. The second being terrible, the third being fun and terrible.
I do remember one of the animated ones being pretty damn good story wise, but those animated ones always lack soul.
No there arent sequels.
However there is the Forever War series by Joe Haldeman, which he claimed was influenced by Stormship Troopers (and his own war experience). Mechanical super warriors in space but instead of glorifying war it showed a darker side.
Heinlein actually told Haldeman at an award ceremony that his book “may be the best future war story I’ve ever read!”
This is my go to example when bitching about “Why make another spider man? You could make The Forever War!”
Are you perhaps thinking of Ender’s Game? I get the two books confused occasionally too for some reason
There’s already like five or more Starship Troopers movies. They really went to tpwn making bad sequels.
Yes.
Is going to remake Galaxy Quest next? Maybe I’m having a “Get of my lawn” moment, but leave my precious alone. 😭
You can still enjoy the movie and the book. You can ignore the upcoming film. New media cannot ruin old media, follow the example of the matrix fans who say “shame they never made a sequel”
True, I’ll take the Psycho remake as a better example. I am also in the boat that only the first Matrix film exists, but I’m not saying the others are bad.
Starship troopers the book and the movie are separate. The movie is it’s own special beautiful absurdity loosely based on the book but not really at all.
Jurassic Park is loosely based on the book as well, at least that was my take after reading it.
So is this new movie (series) going to be a closer following to the books?
Not as loosely as the Bourne movies, probably. I was very confused until I heard that the script writer was banned from reading the books, and based the script on a one-page summary.
Hopefully comes to fruition. Sadly his Alien film did not.
Yeah, I don’t need a movie that requires a sequel that never happens.
Will it actually be faithful to the book this time?
I don’t think I’d even want it to be, to be honest. The original book was really just fascist apologia, and the later adaptations of it had the foresight to use that premise instead for more effective social commentary.
Edit: I should clarify that I don’t think Heinlein himself was a fascist, but Starship Troopers is easily read as such.
It can be, true, but it was about being a soldier. The setting’s ideology was a military democracy, which is not the same as fascism. They can easily be conflated by bad actors though. And as recent events have demonstrated America is full of bad actors.
