Movie News

Neil Moritz Remaking STARSHIP TROOPERS: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz Writing

Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Starship Troopers

Neil Moritz is remaking Robert A. Heinlein‘s Starship Troopers with Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz writing the screenplay. Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz are the screenwriters of Thor and X-Men: First Class. This does not imbue me with that much hope as Thor was severely flawed and X-Men: First Class had some issues as well.

On the original Starship Troopers and future releases:

Advertisement
 

The original film, released in 1997, was a moderate theatrical success but lives on in the hearts of its fans (myself included) and in numerous direct to DVD sequels. A new animated film, Starship Troopers Invasion, from the acclaimed director of Appleseed Shinji Aramaki, will be released next year.

Two questions asked of what the remake will consist of, with the writer’s answers following them:

1. Will they go back to the Heinlein source material or draw from Verhoeven’s film?

Heinlein’s book is cold and calculated while Verhoeven’s take on the material was bombastic and satirical. I’d imagine Sony thinks part of the reason the first film wasn’t a massive, massive hit was because of the original’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Knowing that, this one will probably be a lot more clinical and serious.

2. Will this reboot feature power armor, a major element of the novel that was removed from the movie?

In the book, power armor is a very important part of the story. It’s basically a suit all members of the Mobile Infantry wear which has incredibly abilities including limited flight. Verhoeven wanted to include this in his movie but couldn’t afford it, even with a massive budget. One would imagine it’s much cheaper to make people fly these days so, yes, it will probably in the movie.

I really hope they include the mobile battle suits. That is where the mobile infantry derived its name from and was sorely missed in the Paul Verhoeven version. They included them in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder but they screwed them up with some BS physic link between suit and man (instead of a physical link like in the book) and horrendous CGI. Hopefully the new film gets it right.

I have a few questions of my own regarding the new Starship Troopers adaptation:

3. Will the pilots have shaved heads like in the book?

4. Will the main character be “a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan “Johnnie” Rico”  like in the book?

5. Will the dogs with the throat surgeries conducted on them, The Caleb, and the Dog units in the Mobile Infantry (this is from memory here folks), be present?

Have you read Starship Troopers, seen its deleted scenes, or read the book? What do you think of a Starship Troopers remake?

Source: Slashfilm

Advertisement
 

FilmBook's Newsletter

Subscribe to FilmBook’s Daily Newsletter for the latest news!

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
Back to top button
Share via
Send this to a friend