Starship Troopers talk from producer: More faithful to the book, less violent than 1st film

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Would you like to know what kind of film the proposed STARSHIP TROOPERS reboot will be?

So did Empire magazine, which asked producer Toby Jaffe (also a producer on the new TOTAL RECALL, as luck would have it) just what this movie will be like: will it be as violent as the 1997 Paul Verhoeven flick? As satirical, and in effect, darkly funny? Some excerpts:

“The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to make it that violent,” explains Jaffe, also one of the team behind the Colin Farrell’s Total Recall. “With Recall in particular, we made a conscious choice to keep it tonally closer to something like Minority Report. It gives the studio, and us as producers, the opportunity to reintroduce it in a new way.”

In other words, don’t be surprised if this sucker is rated PG-13.

Would you like to know more?

“Verhoeven took [Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel] from one extreme and made it almost comical, whereas our job is to be a little more faithful to the book, and ground it a little more.”

“Verhoeven made his movie a critique of fascism,” says Jaffe, “whereas Heinlein was writing from the perspective of someone who had served in World War II. Y’know, one man’s fascism is another man’s patriotism…”

The thing about these reboots/remakes of Verhoeven’s films is, it’s impossible to capture the same tone – that very specific, off-kilter, frequently straight-up bonkers tone – that Verhoeven established so memorably in those flicks. He’s a one-of-a-kind, and anyone attempting to ape his style would be embarking on a foolhardy enterprise. So a completely new take is the way to go. That doesn’t mean any of these updated movies are necessary, mind you..

STARSHIP TROOPERS star Denise Richards