Sony is working on a new Starship Troopers movie reboot, according to various Hollywood sources.
The Hollywood Reporter announced that Neill Blomkamp, the director behind District 9, Elysium, and Chappie, has signed on to write and direct a fresh adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 military sci-fi novel, Starship Troopers. Both Deadline and Variety have confirmed this report.
This new adaptation, produced by Sony's Columbia Pictures, is not a continuation or related to Paul Verhoeven's cult classic 1997 sci-fi satire, Starship Troopers. Instead, it aims to be a direct adaptation of Heinlein's original work.
Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers satirized the novel upon which it is based. Photo by TriStar Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images.
The news of Blomkamp's involvement with this project is intriguing, especially since Sony recently announced a live-action adaptation of the popular PlayStation Studios game, Helldivers. Helldivers, developed by Arrowhead, draws significant inspiration from Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, featuring soldiers fighting alien bugs and other factions while promoting a satirized fascist regime called Super Earth.
With both Starship Troopers and Helldivers in development, Sony faces the challenge of managing two potentially competing projects. However, The Hollywood Reporter clarified that Blomkamp's version will not be a remake of Verhoeven's film but a return to the source material. Heinlein's novel has a notably different tone from Verhoeven's adaptation, often interpreted as promoting the very ideals the film satirizes.
Neither the new Starship Troopers nor the Helldivers movie has a confirmed release date, suggesting fans might have to wait a while to see these projects come to fruition. Blomkamp's most recent directorial effort was Sony's Gran Turismo, an adaptation of the popular PlayStation-exclusive driving simulation series.
