Starship Troopers Is Being Remade

Producer Neal H. Moritz is known for taking on rather large projects and reboots. He currently has Total Recall and Bryan Singer's Jack The Giant Killer to be released this summer. Along with a slew of other projects that include 21 Jump Street, R.I.P.D. (Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges), RED 2, Highlander and Escape From New York. Neal is about to develop a remake of yet another film from director Paul Verhoeven this time according to Vulture it will be Starship Troopers. The 90's cult classic was a massive misstep for Sony when the $100 million film didn't make a splash at the box office when it first came out but then later made a killing in the home video market. It spawned two direct-to-DVD sequels which neither had the scale or action of the first film. However, it might be in good hands as Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz will tackle the remake's script. The pair are credited for writing both Thor and X-Men First Class which were some of the biggest success stories of the year.



As a big fan of the original I'm unsure which angle they'll be going for here. I was shocked how much they would exclude in Total Recall from the original film going as far as getting rid of the violence for a PG-13 rating along with Mars. To see a PG-13 Starship Troopers film would be an odd thing considering this a science fiction war film. Films like Saving Private Ryan and Platoon showed the realistic side to war but had to be R for this to happen. Even in science fiction the rules still apply just look at Aliens (which channeled Vietnam) for example if we didn't see the marines taken out so harshly I don't think the film would have had the same impact. Avatar for all it's stunning special effects didn't have the same urgency Aliens had because the realism was lost in it's fantasy world of CGI.

My faith in the project will also come down to casting and the director. I feel like Sony could be working the Hunger Games/Ender's Game angle here and looking to hire very young actors for the leads. Not unlike the original which had a fresh faced group of young actors put into combat. I would hope that the studio went for talent rather flavors of the month. Since I believe this reboot is likely a new franchise in the making. I don't have a lot of directors coming to mind who could do this justice but newcomer Rupert Sanders is among them. Sanders who I hope will make a name for himself with Snow White And The Huntsman also did a great job on the some of the Halo live-action commercials.

Simon Kinberg Writing Sequel To X-Men First Class

It didn't take long for the name of screenwriter of the X-Men First Class sequel to be revealed. Jason Flemyng had just stated 20th Century Fox was developing a script for the sequel. However, there was no official word from the studio or Matthew Vaughn.

SuperHeroHype now reports that Simon Kinberg is currently writing First Class 2. Kinberg's writing credits includes X3, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, This Means War and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He's also producing Neill Blomkamp's next science fiction epic Elysium. There is no word if original screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz will be contributing. It's assumed if director Matthew Vaughn returns he and writing partner Jane Goldman would do their own re-writes.

Writers Ashley Miller & Zack Stentz Want A Crack At Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four is one of the most popular and recognizable Marvel properties. The comics themselves introduced us to Silver Surfer, Galactius, Rama-Tut (Kang The Conqueror) and Doctor Doom (one of the greatest villains in comics). So it's puzzling how three attempts to make a decent film has ended up in ethier disaster (Roger Corman's version) or average at best. Fox is giving the foursome one more shot before the rights revert back to Marvel/Disney. The relaunch has been stuck in development limbo for years now and it's status has yet to be updated.

Screenwriters Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (via ComicBookMovie) think they have a way to reinvent the characters while keeping the fantastical aspect of the comics intact. Miller and Stentz are best known for their work on Thor as well as writing credits for X-Men First Class.They believe the Fantastic Four reboot  should be playing up the cosmic aspect of the comics.


"We would absolutely love to reboot the Fantastic Four. There is a franchise that's crying out for it. The Fantastic Four are adventurers, not superheroes, and we have not seen that so far.

"It should all be about venturing into the unknown, space, the Negative Zone, the Microverse. They are explorers. It should be Star Wars meets superheroes."


I have to agree with them as Thor and Green Lantern seem to be proving that science fiction can be included in the superhero genre. Considering they get their powers in space and a majority of their villains are aliens this makes a lot of sense. With Fox's massive success with Avatar they should understand the power of a space adventure spectacle. It would be interesting to see a Fantastic Four film on the edge of Star Trek and Star Wars. The studio doesn't seem to be revamping their recent comic properties without thinking things through. First Class brought the X-Men series back to it's roots while The Wolverine, Daredevil and Deadpool are expected to be on the nose faithful reinventions. Hopefully they will go the same route with Fantastic Four and putting the time into giving fans a solid film.