Starship Troopers Remake in planning.

[SpaceMarine93]

I don't know if any of you have seen this yet, so I would post on the assumption you guys haven't. In December last year, it was announced that a Starship Troopers remake is being planned by producer Neal Moritz. Here's the online article from EMPIRE magazine:

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=32603

Somewhere, buried deep in the heart of Hollywood, a pulsing brain bug is slowly making plans to remake every move ever produced. Well, the image is fitting at least, since someone is now planning to tackle a new version of Starship Troopers.

First splattering across our screens in 1997, Starship Troopers remains one of the most fun entries in the Paul Verhoeven blood, boobs ‘n’ bombs era that also spawned the likes of Basic Instinct, RoboCop and Showgirls (we didn’t say the bombs were all on screen, now did we?) For all its OTT action, Troopers managed to be a satire of Robert Heinlein-style sci-fi, albeit with a subtlety bypass, since Verhoeven’s Hollywood output wouldn’t know what subtlety meant even if it had Word Of The Day toilet paper.

The movie finds mankind in conflict with giant, marauding bugs, who enjoy swarming human armies and launching giant plasma poops into space. Not known for the calibre of its acting performances, it was nevertheless a chance for Neil Patrick Harris to get some work in the years before his big comeback.

The main brain behind the revival is prolific producer Neal Moritz, the man behind the Fast & The Furious films and several thousand other titles. It’s not really shocking that he’d turn to Starship Troopers, since he’s already shepherding one Verhoeven remake to the screen with Total Recall.

Now he’s hired Thor/X-Men: First Class contributors Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz to have a crack at a new script. Wonder if they can match original writer Ed Neumeier’s cheeky wit?

Okay, I am not going to comment on the choice of writing team is good (while Thor was bad in my opinion, the other films suggest that this team could make great, or at least reasonably good movies). So I want to say my opinion on this:

I would like the film to actually try to stick as closely to the original source material by Robert A Heinlein as possible. I'm reading the book (as of end of April 2012), and I found his work far more intelligent and enjoyable than the film series made by Paul Verhoeven (who, being a Holocaust survivor and disliked the book, re-directed the whole film as a big anti-fascist satire).

I want to see Power Armored Mobile Infantry being dropped from orbit in drop pods.

I want to see them laying waste to their enemies with intelligent platoon tactics and high tech.

I want to see their enemies, the Bugs, portrayed as they are in the book - a laser-wielding, starship riding PSEUDO-Arachnids, not some overly-dehumanized alien insect swarm that zerg rushes their opponents. Their Hive-mind mentality (Brain-bugs, Queens and all) should be kept, and perhaps their technology should be organic to emphasis their alien-ness, but stick to how Heinlein portray them, please?

I don't want stupid love plotlines. Heinlein left that out for a very good reason.

The political commentary made originally by Heinlein could be trimmed down or changed to convey a more neutral / anti-war and anti-militarism message. The Terran Federation and the message that 'Violence is the ultimate authority that ensures order and authority' should be deconstructed to look bad, but ultimately a necessity, to win the war. Changes should reflect current social/political views. What about adding other viewpoints (just enough for drama, not enough to be distracting from the main story)? The inevitable horrors of War could be stressed wonderfully by adding other non-combatant viewpoints.

How do you guys think that Starship Troopers should be remade?

[Srelex]

There's already this's coming out, produced by the guy who played Rico. IDK if this is what they meant.

Anyway, the book's a boring piece of crap complete with half-assed political ramblings and idiotic mech-armor, so fuck it.

[Grumman]

How do you guys think that Starship Troopers should be remade?

The new movie should treat the source material with respect. There is only one thing I can think of that I'd keep from Verhoeven's movie, which is for the Mobile Infantry to be a mixed force.

[Lord Revan]

tbh the Paul Verhoeven movie was fun due the campiness of it, the sequels were bad (well I've seen only the first one but from what I've heard the second wasn't any better).

I dunno how entertaining a "more realistic" or "closer to the book" take would be.

[Majin Gojira]

Yeah, I'm pretty much with Lord Revan on this one. I'm not sure what new things they'll bring to the screen for this concept, but it's way to early to talk about anything at the moment. I wait for filming to begin before a judgement can really be made.

But I still doubt it will be as amusing as the original one.

[Grumman]

I dunno how entertaining a "more realistic" or "closer to the book" take would be.

I'd say it should be more idealistic, not more realistic. It is the spirit of the book more than the particulars that I want to be retained.

[PainRack]

Recreate the Starship troopers cartoon for the big screen.

Seriously, the cartoon series were much better sequels than everything else the movies came out with, even in the realm of big unrealistic guns.

[Gil Hamilton]

There's already this's coming out, produced by the guy who played Rico. IDK if this is what they meant.

If people are looking for it to be based on the Heinlein book, then that clip leads me to believe they are going to be disappointed, since that speech in the book goes in the complete opposite direction with Rico claiming that even though it stands to reason he can't really be afraid, he's scared silly every time.

It's mystifying to me why they are rehashing the movie though. I think they are right. Somewhere in Hollywood, possibly in a laboratory under a film industry skyscraper there is a Brain Bug commanding people to REMAKE ALL MOVIES, even ones that aren't that old. Starship Troopers came out when I was in high school, for cripes sake.

[Majin Gojira]

The ideal of pitching movies has changed entirely. For big projects, studios are now largely unwilling to take risks without something to back it up, be it a prior success or "marketing".

It's also easier for the writers/directors when pitching it. In case it bombs, they no longer bear responsibility for the failure. Instead they can say "Well, the marketing research data said it would be a hit, you saw that data too, therefore I can't be blamed for the film's failure."

[Guardsman Bass]

It's kind of bizarre for them to do a re-make of a parody movie. What's going to make it stand-out from the original movie, aside from possibly better special effects?

I wouldn't mind if they tried to do something closer to the book, provided that they make it clear that Rico is undergoing the process of being transformed into a soldier willing to die for the Federation. The speeches in the book make a lot more sense when you consider that they're propaganda, not Heinlein's personal opinion (he tended to explore a lot of different political set-ups in his SF books). The only problem might be the same issue that plagued John Carter: so much of the source material has been lifted and used in other media that what was once original now seems cliche.

The ideal of pitching movies has changed entirely. For big projects, studios are now largely unwilling to take risks without something to back it up, be it a prior success or "marketing".

It could also be the pet project of somebody at the studio. That can happen quite often with successful producers, directors, and executives.

[fgalkin]

How do you guys think that Starship Troopers should be remade?

The new movie should treat the source material with respect. There is only one thing I can think of that I'd keep from Verhoeven's movie, which is for the Mobile Infantry to be a mixed force.

For that, the source material should be worthy of respect. I found Verhoeven's version to be immensely superior to the original.

I'd say it should be more idealistic, not more realistic. It is the spirit of the book more than the particulars that I want to be retained.

You mean, the "fascists killing Asian subhumans" aspect of the book? You can just watch Truimph of the Will for that.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Simon_Jester]

On account of you don't like the politics? Or on account of something else?

[Aaron MkII]

Wasn't the power armour barely seen and the majority of the book being Rico at OCS?

Cause that'll be boring as fuck.

[fgalkin]

Yes and yes.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Losonti Tokash]

Come on, Aaron. Don't you want all your movies to start off with people jumping and firing nukes, followed by the nail-biting tension of finding out whether Rico passed his exams or not? We can even throw in some fascist propaganda that loads of fat nerds will take at face value. Hell yeah.

[Grumman]

The new movie should treat the source material with respect. There is only one thing I can think of that I'd keep from Verhoeven's movie, which is for the Mobile Infantry to be a mixed force.

For that, the source material should be worthy of respect. I found Verhoeven's version to be immensely superior to the original.

For any movie. I don't care whether it's Starship Troopers, G.I. Joe or My Little Pony, either do a proper job or fuck off and let someone else do it.

I'd say it should be more idealistic, not more realistic. It is the spirit of the book more than the particulars that I want to be retained.

You mean, the "fascists killing Asian subhumans" aspect of the book?

Gee, I must have missed that part, unless you're saying that metaphorically speaking, the bugs are really Russians.

[fgalkin]

For any movie. I don't care whether it's Starship Troopers, G.I. Joe or My Little Pony, either do a proper job or fuck off and let someone else do it.

I would argue that Verhoeven has done a proper job of showing the spirit of the books, and the proper reaction to it. You said yourself the superficial details are less important to you than the essence of the book, and the movie has captured that perfectly.

Unless you think the essence of the books was guys in power armor blowing up bugs, in which case, I have news for you.

Gee, I must have missed that part, unless you're saying that metaphorically speaking, the bugs are really Russians.

Every time we killed a thousand Bugs at a cost of one M.I. it was a net victory for the Bugs. We were learning, expensively, just how efficient a total communism can be when used by a people actually adapted to it by evolution; the Bug commisars didn't care any more about expending soldiers than we cared about expending ammo. Perhaps we could have figured this out about the Bugs by noting the grief the Chinese Hegemony gave the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance; however the trouble with 'lessons from history' is that we usually read them best after falling flat on our chins.”

Are you telling me the book was NOT an allegory for the Korean War?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Guardsman Bass]

The bugs were probably out of the Korean War and Communism in general, but the warfare itself is lifted from the "island-hopping" type of military campaign in World War 2's Pacific Theater.

Budget issues aside, a more faithful adaptation of the book would be better suited for a mini-series than a movie. Maybe someone could talk HBO into doing a six-episode mini-series, which would allow you to flesh out a bunch of scenes much better.

[Simon_Jester]

For any movie. I don't care whether it's Starship Troopers, G.I. Joe or My Little Pony, either do a proper job or fuck off and let someone else do it.

I would argue that Verhoeven has done a proper job of showing the spirit of the books, and the proper reaction to it. You said yourself the superficial details are less important to you than the essence of the book, and the movie has captured that perfectly.

Unless you think the essence of the books was guys in power armor blowing up bugs, in which case, I have news for you.

Can you explain the essence of the book? Clearly? Instead of just sort of hinting at it?

Because "Korean War allegory" falls down rather flat- that's in there, not without reason since it was the last major war the US had fought. But it's not the only thing in there.

[fgalkin]

The main argument of the book is, essentially, fascism is good for you and totally justified when your enemy is COMMUNISM. Followed by numerous examples of hyper-elite power-armored soldiers (rugged individualists all, high on "leave no man behind") slaughtering the endless waves of evil subhuman bugs, nature's perfect communists (a honor they share with the Chinese, apparently).

Heinlein had always been a libertarian, so his fascism is actually a voluntary union of individuals, willingly giving up their rights in exchange for duty (killing communists), and gaining priviledges as a result. Which actually makes it even worse because it's pretty clear that at that point in time, Heinlein actually believed this. That is why he spends more time on philosophical discussions than on killing bugs. Starship Troopers (and many of his other books) is just as much a philosophical work as any of Rand's novels, but unlike the Ugly Dwarf in Drag, Heinlein was actually a good enough writer to make his philosophising entertaining.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[General Mung Beans]

The main argument of the book is, essentially, fascism is good for you and totally justified when your enemy is COMMUNISM. Followed by numerous examples of hyper-elite power-armored soldiers (rugged individualists all, high on "leave no man behind") slaughtering the endless waves of evil subhuman bugs, nature's perfect communists (a honor they share with the Chinese, apparently).

The Terran Federation is hardly fascist-its a meritocracy. By comparison its electorate is larger percentage-wise than pre-Great Reform England and several other "liberal" states. And the book is hardly racist-it makes it pretty clear the Bugs are communistic by nature while humans (Chinese or otherwise) are not-the main character is Filipino while there are characters of various other ethnicities in the book.

[Aaron MkII]

Come on, Aaron. Don't you want all your movies to start off with people jumping and firing nukes, followed by the nail-biting tension of finding out whether Rico passed his exams or not? We can even throw in some fascist propaganda that loads of fat nerds will take at face value. Hell yeah.

For 15 whole minutes it'll be more interesting then Atlas Shat.

[PREDATOR490]

Shouldnt be remade at all.
The first one was fine... its the other two that were broken and would deserve getting redone.
Hopefully without the shoestring budget effects of 2 or the utterly appalling dialogue of 3.

That said... if your gonna do remakes... Starship Troopers has been fucked for ages with the sequels so a remake seems utterely pointless. Might as well go for broke and do a remake of Aliens or Terminator.

[Alkaloid]

ST 2 was god awful, ST 3 was great, it took the same approach to religion as ST 1 took to fascism. That scene where the blond chick is praying and getting more and more over the top, begging for angels to come and save them, and the lights from the drop pods make a halo around her head was possibly the funniest individual scene in all three movies.

The Terran Federation is hardly fascist-its a meritocracy. By comparison its electorate is larger percentage-wise than pre-Great Reform England and several other "liberal" states. And the book is hardly racist-it makes it pretty clear the Bugs are communistic by nature while humans (Chinese or otherwise) are not-the main character is Filipino while there are characters of various other ethnicities in the book.

It isn't a meritocracy at all. Through the entire book it is made entirely clear that the only way to gain citizenship and the privileges that come with it. (voting rights, ability to be in government, ability to work in law enforcement and so on) Sure, Heinlen went on in later years about how there were all sorts of other ways top get citizenship, just by performing government service jobs, but the fact is when Rico was listing the ways to get citizenship every single job he mentioned was in the military. It is a militant, fascist society where the government is essentially the military.

[the atom]

Just show jet pack equipped space marines blowing away bugs with nukes and fusion torches and it'll at least be worthwhile as a popcorn flick. That's all i ask.