One of the most badass sci-fi action movies out there is Paul Verhoeven's 1997 gore-fest STARSHIP TROOPERS. The movie delighted me as a young teen with its boobs and blood, and it still holds up today as a killer satire. If you haven't seen it in a few years, make sure to give it a rewatch ASAP and thank me later. Anyhow, speaking on the greatness of Verhoeven's movie, today we have some cool updates on the franchise via the original movie's screenwriter, Ed Neumeier (ROBOCOP), who recently spoke about the original movie and eventually, the conversation turned to the idea of a STARSHIP TROOPERS TV series that might bring back the old cast as a sequel, of sorts.
Neumeier said:
Well, I think they can. I don’t want to jinx anything, but we are talking about trying to do a television show that is based on that idea.
Neumeier then went on to talk about Sony’s potential PG-13 reboot:
Well, I have mixed feelings about it [the reboot] because I think that what we did with the first Starship is almost not repeatable in a way…I based the structure of Starship Troopers when I was writing it, the structure of WWII propaganda films that the studios made between 1941 and 1944. We don’t really talk about those movies anymore, but that had a very particular structure and they were made during a conflict and they didn’t have an end-point as with Starship ends they’ll keep fighting.
I can imagine you could do a new one that was a more serious version of the book without the political commentary, but I don’t know if that interests me that much. The spectacle of the giant creatures and the ridiculous bloodshed, all that stuff, I don’t know if in this world of CG where you can do all that stuff pretty easily seeing a bunch of creatures fighting might not interesting enough right now, for me. But other people might like it.
I’m not sure, their idea is as I understood at a certain point was they said to kind of do An Officer and The Gentleman, Johnny Rico as the Officer and The Gentlemen version of a sci-fi movie. So, maybe you could do that a romantic picture about kids coming up together in the service and one of them becoming an officer and all of that means, you know. It’s really not what Heinlein’s about, but that’s okay I can imagine you could do that. I’m not sure who goes to see that movie though.
While I would be delighted to see a hard R TV series based on STARSHIP TROOPERS get the greenlight somewhere like Netflix, I can't say that I would be interested in a PG-13 reboot. Especially if it goes the whole "AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMEN route" Neumeier mentions. Leave that stuff on the development room floor, thank you very much, and start concentrating on the TV series, I say. How about you? Let us know below!
The original 1997 movie was written by Neumeier based on the book by Robert A. Heinlein. It followed this synopsis:
In the distant future, the Earth is at war with a race of giant alien insects. Little is known about the Bugs except that they are intent on the eradication of all human life. But there was a time before the war… A Mobile Infantry travels to distant alien planets to take the war to the Bugs. They are a ruthless enemy with only one mission: Survival of their species no matter what the cost…
That adaptation was directed by Paul Verhoeven. Jon Davison and Alan Marshall produced and the film starred Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside. You can snag a copy of the movie on Blu-ray RIGHT HERE.