'District 9' director Neill Blomkamp enlists for new 'Starship Troopers' movie
Neill Blomkamp is doing his part.
The District 9 filmmaker is working on a new Starship Troopers movie for Sony's Columbia Pictures division, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed. The film will be a new adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel rather than a direct remake of Paul Verhoeven's 1997 movie, which followed a group of young recruits who go to war against alien "bugs."
In addition to directing, Blomkamp is writing the screenplay and will produce alongside Terri Tatchell, his wife and frequent collaborator. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.
Blomkamp's previous films like District 9 and Elysium featured strong sociopolitical commentary channeled through a sci-fi lens, which makes the filmmaker an intriguing successor to Verhoeven, who put a satirical spin on Heinlein's material.
Related: Starship Troopers cast remembers the film's 'lousy reception' before becoming cult classic
However, it remains unclear exactly what Blomkamp's angle on Starship Troopers will be, because if he's not remaking or rebooting Verhoeven's work, and instead returning to Heinlein's original novel, that means the project might lack the ironic detachment of the 1997 movie. Heinlein's book has been the subject of some controversy, as its ardent militarism and unsympathetic rendering of alien antagonists have been widely described as fascist.
Verhoeven himself took major issue with Heinlein's viewpoint, and sought to make his adaptation a satire of the original book. "It is really quite a bad book," the Dutch filmmaker told Empire in 2020. "It's a very right-wing book. And with the movie we tried, and I think at least partially succeeded, in commenting on that at the same time. It would be eat your cake and have it. All the way through we were fighting with the fascism, the ultra-militarism. All the way through I wanted the audience to be asking, 'Are these people crazy?'"
Verhoeven's film didn't strongly connect with audiences upon its initial release, making $121 million at the global box office on a budget that exceeded $100 million. However, the movie has gained a cult following and spawned a number of sequel and spinoff projects, including the 2004 TV movie Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, the 2008 direct-to-video sequel Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and two direct-to-video anime sequels.
Related: Starship Troopers cast: Where are they now?
Word of the new film comes in the wake of the massive popularity of Helldivers 2, a 2024 video game that has drawn frequent comparisons to Starship Troopers due to its alien bug villains, satirical tone, and futuristic setting.
This isn't the first time Blomkamp has signed on for a Verhoeven-adjacent project. He was previously tapped to helm a RoboCop sequel in 2018, but departed the following year.
Related: Sigourney Weaver says the 'ship has sailed' on her playing Ripley in Alien sequel: 'I put in my time in space'
Blomkamp recently directed Gran Turismo, a racing drama based on the PlayStation video game franchise of the same name. He had previously attempted to helm an Alien sequel starring Sigourney Weaver that was ultimately shelved.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘The Legend of Zelda' Live-Action Movie Moves to May 2027
'The Legend of Zelda' live action movie will move from March to May 7, 2027, Sony and Nintendo announced. The new date was freed up when 'Avengers: Secret Wars' moved to Dec. 17, 2027. More from Variety 'Legend of Zelda' Live-Action Film Sets March 2027 Theatrical Release From Sony Pictures 13 Years Before Landing 'Zelda' Movie, Director Wes Ball Called It the 'Next Avatar-Like' Film and Said He 'Could Never Hope to Have the Chance to Direct It' 'Legend of Zelda' Live-Action Film in Development From Nintendo and 'Maze Runner' Director Wes Ball Originally set for March 26, 2027, 'Zelda' series creator Shigeru Miyamoto said in a statement it would shift several weeks later 'for production reasons.' 'This is Miyamoto. For production reasons, we are changing the release date of the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda to May 7, 2027. It will be some weeks later than the release timing we originally announced, and we will take the extra time to make the film as good as it can be. Thank you for your patience,' said Nintendo's statement. Wes Ball directs the live-action version of Nintendo's 'The Legend of Zelda' game, with Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad producing. Ball directed 'The Maze Runner' trilogy and last summer's 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.' Casting and story have not yet been announced. After Nintendo had a massive hit with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie,' plans for the 'Zelda' film gained momentum. more to come… Best of Variety 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Animated Program — Can Netflix Score Big With 'Arcane,' 'Devil May Cry' and the Final Season of 'Big Mouth?'
24 minutes ago
Nintendo's Switch 2 soups up the graphics, but does it deliver the games?
WASHINGTON -- I'm cruising around Bowser's Castle with my old pal Toad. It's not exactly relaxing, what with all the lava pits and banana peels and turtle shells littering the road. Add 23 other characters — is that a cow driving? — who are trying to get to the finish line first, and it's chaos. The hectic, high-speed insanity of any race in the new Mario Kart World would have caused the eight-year-old Switch console to wheeze a bit. And that's why we've got the Switch 2 ($449.99), the souped-up sequel to Nintendo's popular home-and-portable hybrid. It looks prettier, too. The 7.9-inch portable display (up from 6.2 inches) boosts the resolution to 1020p (from 720p), and while the LCD screen isn't quite as sharp as an OLED screen might have been, it's much cleaner than the original recipe Switch. It looks even better when connected to an HDTV since it now supports 4K and HDR. Nintendo has always stood apart from the technological arms race that fans of Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox obsess over, insisting that first-rate games don't necessarily depend on high-powered computer chips. But you could feel the strain in 2023's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with its at-times blurry graphics and sluggish framerate. The Switch 2, with a faster framerate of 120 fps, corrects much of the fuzziness. That's not to say it comes close to matching the high-definition performance of the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox X/S. If you're expecting the jaw-dropping graphics of, say, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows... well, no. There is good news for those of us who have gotten weary of the old Switch's dinky 32 gigabytes of internal storage. The Switch 2 multiplies that by eight, for 256 GB. Of course, flashier games take up more space, so if you want more room you'll have to invest in a microSD Express card — which is a bit pricier than the standard memory card used in most portable devices. The Switch 2's Joy-Con controllers have undergone some tinkering. As before, you can attach them to the sides of the screen if you're playing on the go. If you're at home, you can attach them to a doohickey that feels more like a traditional joystick. Either way, they're now more firmly connected with magnets, which provide a satisfying snap. Both the left and right Joy-Cons now include an optical mouse, which you can use by placing the controller on its edge and rolling it around on a table. (Nintendo says you can also use it on your pants, but I prefer using a clipboard on my lap.) It remains to be seen how many Switch 2 games will call for a mouse, but 2K's port of Sid Meier's Civilization VII seems like a good candidate. And then there's a new button labeled 'C' on the right-hand Joy-Con. That calls up GameChat, which lets you start up a conversation with other players — provided you've all taken the time to register yourselves as friends. (Eventually, you'll also need to subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service, but that requirement doesn't kick in until March 31, 2026.) The microphone is built into the Switch 2, though if you want to upgrade to video chat, you'll need to buy a separate Nintendo camera. Finally, there's GameShare, which lets you play selected titles with other Switch users even if they don't own the software. Nintendo has been emphasizing the new social features in its marketing, though it feels like it's catching up to the competition. The kids I know who play Fortnite or Minecraft on competing consoles seem to have figured out long ago how to chat with their pals. Welcome to the 2010s? As with any console launch, the driving question is: Does it have the games? There are just a couple of Switch 2 exclusives out now: Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a $10 demo package that really should have been free. There are some new-to-Nintendo ports of excellent titles like Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077. You can get upgrades of classics like the last two Legend of Zelda adventures. And the Switch 2 is fully backward-compatible, so you can play everything that came out for the Switch as well as a substantial library of older titles. There's no other machine that will let you play future installments of beloved franchises like Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Super Smash Bros. and Animal Crossing. None of those have been announced yet, but some marquee names — Donkey Kong and Kirby — will star in Switch 2 exclusives later this year. There's plenty of competition out there, though, and not just in the TV-connected console market Switch shares with the PlayStation and the Xbox. Nintendo no longer has the portable market to itself, thanks to Valve's SteamDeck. Some models of that device cost less than the Switch 2, and it already has a huge library of PC games. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it's teaming up with Asus on the ROG Xbox Ally, a handheld that will be out before Christmas. Honestly, we'll probably have a better idea of the Switch's quality a few years down the line, after developers get a handle on what the new hardware can do. If you're dying to get back behind the wheel with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach right now, though, you know what you need to do.
San Francisco Chronicle
33 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Nintendo's Switch 2 soups up the graphics, but does it deliver the games?
WASHINGTON (AP) — I'm cruising around Bowser's Castle with my old pal Toad. It's not exactly relaxing, what with all the lava pits and banana peels and turtle shells littering the road. Add 23 other characters — is that a cow driving? — who are trying to get to the finish line first, and it's chaos. The hectic, high-speed insanity of any race in the new Mario Kart World would have caused the eight-year-old Switch console to wheeze a bit. And that's why we've got the Switch 2 ($449.99), the souped-up sequel to Nintendo's popular home-and-portable hybrid. It looks prettier, too. The 7.9-inch portable display (up from 6.2 inches) boosts the resolution to 1020p (from 720p), and while the LCD screen isn't quite as sharp as an OLED screen might have been, it's much cleaner than the original recipe Switch. It looks even better when connected to an HDTV since it now supports 4K and HDR. Nintendo has always stood apart from the technological arms race that fans of Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox obsess over, insisting that first-rate games don't necessarily depend on high-powered computer chips. But you could feel the strain in 2023's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with its at-times blurry graphics and sluggish framerate. The Switch 2, with a faster framerate of 120 fps, corrects much of the fuzziness. That's not to say it comes close to matching the high-definition performance of the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox X/S. If you're expecting the jaw-dropping graphics of, say, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows... well, no. There is good news for those of us who have gotten weary of the old Switch's dinky 32 gigabytes of internal storage. The Switch 2 multiplies that by eight, for 256 GB. Of course, flashier games take up more space, so if you want more room you'll have to invest in a microSD Express card — which is a bit pricier than the standard memory card used in most portable devices. Magnets, how do they work? The Switch 2's Joy-Con controllers have undergone some tinkering. As before, you can attach them to the sides of the screen if you're playing on the go. If you're at home, you can attach them to a doohickey that feels more like a traditional joystick. Either way, they're now more firmly connected with magnets, which provide a satisfying snap. Both the left and right Joy-Cons now include an optical mouse, which you can use by placing the controller on its edge and rolling it around on a table. (Nintendo says you can also use it on your pants, but I prefer using a clipboard on my lap.) It remains to be seen how many Switch 2 games will call for a mouse, but 2K's port of Sid Meier's Civilization VII seems like a good candidate. What about the social options? And then there's a new button labeled 'C' on the right-hand Joy-Con. That calls up GameChat, which lets you start up a conversation with other players — provided you've all taken the time to register yourselves as friends. (Eventually, you'll also need to subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service, but that requirement doesn't kick in until March 31, 2026.) The microphone is built into the Switch 2, though if you want to upgrade to video chat, you'll need to buy a separate Nintendo camera. Finally, there's GameShare, which lets you play selected titles with other Switch users even if they don't own the software. Nintendo has been emphasizing the new social features in its marketing, though it feels like it's catching up to the competition. The kids I know who play Fortnite or Minecraft on competing consoles seem to have figured out long ago how to chat with their pals. Welcome to the 2010s? Who's got game? As with any console launch, the driving question is: Does it have the games? There are just a couple of Switch 2 exclusives out now: Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a $10 demo package that really should have been free. There are some new-to-Nintendo ports of excellent titles like Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077. You can get upgrades of classics like the last two Legend of Zelda adventures. And the Switch 2 is fully backward-compatible, so you can play everything that came out for the Switch as well as a substantial library of older titles. There's no other machine that will let you play future installments of beloved franchises like Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Super Smash Bros. and Animal Crossing. None of those have been announced yet, but some marquee names — Donkey Kong and Kirby — will star in Switch 2 exclusives later this year. There's plenty of competition out there, though, and not just in the TV-connected console market Switch shares with the PlayStation and the Xbox. Nintendo no longer has the portable market to itself, thanks to Valve's SteamDeck. Some models of that device cost less than the Switch 2, and it already has a huge library of PC games. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it's teaming up with Asus on the ROG Xbox Ally, a handheld that will be out before Christmas. Honestly, we'll probably have a better idea of the Switch's quality a few years down the line, after developers get a handle on what the new hardware can do. If you're dying to get back behind the wheel with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach right now, though, you know what you need to do. —— A previous version of this story was corrected to say that the Switch 2 social options can be used without a subscription until March 31, 2026.
