Sony Considers “Starship Troopers” Remake?

A report earlier this week indicates that a remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 sci-fi war satire “Starship Troopers” is in the works at Sony Pictures.

Screen Geek (via WoR) published the report, saying their sources claim the studio is developing the project which they dub a remake of the film as opposed to a new adaptation of the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein.

The original film is set in the 23rd century as teenager Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) and his comrades serve the highly militarised United Citizen Federation, an Earth-based world government, which is engaged in an interstellar war against an insectoid alien species known as the Arachnids.

The film received mixed reviews at the time and earned only $121 million off a $100 million budget. However, as the years passed the movie has been critically re-evaluated and become a cult classic.

Whereas Heinlein’s novel was very militaristic and borderline fascistic, Verhoeven (who grew up in an occupied country) used the material to make an anti-fascism satire that effectively skewered the original work (along with adding his usual gratuitous violence and T&A).

Although not all of the audience understood the joke at the time, it is now considered a minor masterpiece of the genre. Several low-budget direct-to-video sequels, cartoons, and games followed, but none could replicate the success of the first.

Since its publication, the report has not been corroborated, and so it is pure rumor for now. Two previous attempts to remake Verhoeven sci-fi classics, 2012’s “Total Recall” and 2014’s “RoboCop,” both bombed with critics and at the box-office.

Verhoeven is next expected to shoot “Young Sinner,” his first American production since “Hollow Man” in 2000.

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