This looks potentially promising, but I hate to get my hopes up.
26 thoughts on “Starship Troopers”
I’m not getting my hopes up. I’ve not seen Blomkamp’s entire ouvre, but District 9 and Elysium I have seen and both were screechy bits of Marxist propaganda. Browsing through his credits on IMDB, the Marxist worldview seems part of everything he writes. As Blomkamp will, one presumes, also be writing the script for the notional Starship Troopers project, I would both brace myself and not be a first-nighter.
About the only unalloyed good thing Blomkamp seems to have done is employ Carly Pope in several of his projects.
Ditto. Only seen snippets of Elysium because I did watch Contact and decided that would be my final experience looking at Jodie Foster on a screen, ever. But District 9 was pretty much film vomit from start to finish.
I would think Heinlein’s work would still be controlled by some kind of literary trust so Sony had to write a check to someone to proceed with this? And a go-ahead was issued prior to any script review? Really don’t know how this all works.
From a craft perspective, he makes good movies. I don’t have an issues with people who make movies having an agenda, I have issues with them not being able to tell a well crafted story.
“Many good points made in the book with few disagreements.”
In Robert Heinlein’s book only veterans had “citizenship” were allowed to vote; wonder how that would work in today’s America? He in the novel theorized that the collapse of the western democracies was fueled partly by extending the franchise to nearly everyone. He (through the teacher Dubois) said that the willingness to risk one’s life (for the survival/wellbeing of the state) by volunteering for military service (no draft) was the demarcation that made one worthy of citizenship.
In Robert Heinlein’s book only veterans had “citizenship” were allowed to vote; wonder how that would work in today’s America?
This isn’t correct. In the book one had to volunteer for “Federal Service” to be eligible for citizenship. Whether one went to the military or any where else was entirely up to the government; they put you in a job that you could do and that they had a need. In the book there is a scene where Johnny asks if he passed the Federal Service test and the proctor responds that he can’t possibly fail the test; all applicants are accepted. Even a blind man would be assigned as a subject for scientific research. Citizenship followed Federal Service but voting rights were restricted to those who had served and left the service including the military.
“Whether one went to the military or any where else was entirely up to the government;..”
Thx for the correction (read the book many years ago) but I thought the gist of it was if you were a male said “Federal Service” probably/likely meant military service. But what are you thoughts about the central premise, that the willingness to voluntarily submit yourself to military service (with obvious possibility of death) was perceived as what made you fit to be a citizen and allowed to exercise the franchise? Heinlein argued (in other places) besides Starship Troopers that the extension of the franchise to pretty much every warm body with the required number of birthdays would eventually collapse democracy.
“f you were a male said “Federal Service” probably/likely meant military service.”
Early on, when Johnny tries to join up, he’s told that they had to (essentially) make up all kinds of jobs to have enough for potential citizens.
It quickly became apparent upon viewing that the 1997 Verhoeven film had nothing much to do with Heinlein’s novel except the coincidence of title and a few character names. That said, two of Verhoeven’s story modifications worked pretty well – combining the characters of Lt. Col. DuBois and Lt. Rasczak and making Dizzy Flores a hot chick with a backstory. Michael Ironside gave a splendid performance as “Jean Rasczak” and Clancy Brown also did yeoman work as Sgt. Zim. Overall, the film was a fairly silly would-be burlesque of “militarism” that had to repeatedly fall back on actual military virtues to keep its story going.
Hollywood still being pretty woke, the one thing I’d expect to see in the notional “remake” is more actual story-matching diversity of casting. Juan “Johnny” Rico, Sgt. Zim and Carmen Ibanez were all Filipino in the book. If the character of Sgt. Jelal returns from Verhoeven-ish exile, he was described as “a Finno-Turk from Iskander.” That casting should be interesting – assuming poor old Jelal doesn’t get left out once again.
Jelly was a Finno-Turk from Iskander around Proxima — a swarthy little man who looked like a clerk, but I’ve seen him tackle two berserk privates so big he had to reach up to grab them, crack their heads together like coconuts, step back out of the way while they fell.
“a fairly silly would-be burlesque” is an excellent description of all Verhoeven’s movies. Nothing wrong with that as such, but he thinks he is a Serious European Intellectual who makes Important Films.
I think it would be more accurate to say that Blomkamp hires good technicians. The looks of District 9 and Elysium are both due to Production Designer Philip Ivey. Ivey was also Art Director on all three films of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
That’s similar to what happened to “Fate is the Hunter”. The book, written by renounced aviation author Ernest Gann, is loved by the aviation community. Gann was an airline pilot stating in the late 1930s, and “Fate is the Hunter” describes many things from his career. It’s an excellent book, one of many great books he wrote.
There’s a movie by the same title. All it shares with the book is the title and there’s an airplane in it. It is not a good movie at all.
One would hope so. CGI could probably have handled armored fighting suits in 1997 but, on top of all the other needed CGI effects, was probably beyond the budget Verhoeven had to work with.
Still, the Mobile Infantry certainly needs to be mobile in some fashion beyond a reliance on shank’s mare. In Verhoeven’s film, they were just foot soldiers with futuristic-looking kit but utterly lacking armor, artillery, air support and anti-air capability.
Dale Dye, in addition to a small role as Sky Marshal Diennes, was also listed as a technical advisor on Starship Troopers. But either his advice was simply disregarded or, once again, budget limitations compromised the force structure portrayed.
Oh, gawd yes! Smoking hot doesn’t begin to do her justice. I think she’s one of those rare femmes fatales whose going to stay fatale right up until she’s lowered into the ground.
I must admit most movie and TV SF leaves me cold but I’d like to see some of Larry Niven’s stories as movies. Modern CGI should give us believable Kzin and the Man-Kzin Wars series has some good plots including by the late Hal Colebatch. I’d have moved to pre war Wunderland in a heartbeat. Known Space is a goldmine of stories.
Then there ‘s Poul Anderson. “The Queen of Air and Darkness” as a an SF /mystery/psycho thiller?
The Trader Team stories? I wanna see a Wodenite. Chris Hemsworth would make a good David Falkayn but who gets to play Nick van Rijn?
Who indeed? Burl Ives and Brian Dennehy have both, sadly, left us. So, for that matter, has Victor Buono, who also had the requisite twinkle-in-the-eye mischievousness and ample build.
While on the subject of Anderson, I’d nominate either Henry Cavill or Hugh Jackman as Dominic Flandry. Not sure if Chives could be played live-action or if CGI would be called for.
The Anderson story I’d most like to see done as a film is probably The High Crusade.
The book I’d absolutely most like to see given a first-class filmic treatment is Arthur C. Clarke’s Earthlight. Second would be Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy.
Joe Haldeman’s Forever War is, despite being a relatively slim volume, far more meaty than can be given adequate treatment in a single film so it would have to be a franchise or – more probably in this day and age – a streaming service series.
Another property ripe for such treatment would be John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. I have no strong opinions about casting of the lead character, but Gina Carano would be perfect as his “dead” wife.
I’m not getting my hopes up. I’ve not seen Blomkamp’s entire ouvre, but District 9 and Elysium I have seen and both were screechy bits of Marxist propaganda. Browsing through his credits on IMDB, the Marxist worldview seems part of everything he writes. As Blomkamp will, one presumes, also be writing the script for the notional Starship Troopers project, I would both brace myself and not be a first-nighter.
About the only unalloyed good thing Blomkamp seems to have done is employ Carly Pope in several of his projects.
Ditto. Only seen snippets of Elysium because I did watch Contact and decided that would be my final experience looking at Jodie Foster on a screen, ever. But District 9 was pretty much film vomit from start to finish.
I would think Heinlein’s work would still be controlled by some kind of literary trust so Sony had to write a check to someone to proceed with this? And a go-ahead was issued prior to any script review? Really don’t know how this all works.
From a craft perspective, he makes good movies. I don’t have an issues with people who make movies having an agenda, I have issues with them not being able to tell a well crafted story.
I read the book and watched the movie from 1997?. Many good points made in the book with few disagreements. Cringe doesn’t cover the movie.
“Many good points made in the book with few disagreements.”
In Robert Heinlein’s book only veterans had “citizenship” were allowed to vote; wonder how that would work in today’s America? He in the novel theorized that the collapse of the western democracies was fueled partly by extending the franchise to nearly everyone. He (through the teacher Dubois) said that the willingness to risk one’s life (for the survival/wellbeing of the state) by volunteering for military service (no draft) was the demarcation that made one worthy of citizenship.
In Robert Heinlein’s book only veterans had “citizenship” were allowed to vote; wonder how that would work in today’s America?
This isn’t correct. In the book one had to volunteer for “Federal Service” to be eligible for citizenship. Whether one went to the military or any where else was entirely up to the government; they put you in a job that you could do and that they had a need. In the book there is a scene where Johnny asks if he passed the Federal Service test and the proctor responds that he can’t possibly fail the test; all applicants are accepted. Even a blind man would be assigned as a subject for scientific research. Citizenship followed Federal Service but voting rights were restricted to those who had served and left the service including the military.
“Whether one went to the military or any where else was entirely up to the government;..”
Thx for the correction (read the book many years ago) but I thought the gist of it was if you were a male said “Federal Service” probably/likely meant military service. But what are you thoughts about the central premise, that the willingness to voluntarily submit yourself to military service (with obvious possibility of death) was perceived as what made you fit to be a citizen and allowed to exercise the franchise? Heinlein argued (in other places) besides Starship Troopers that the extension of the franchise to pretty much every warm body with the required number of birthdays would eventually collapse democracy.
“f you were a male said “Federal Service” probably/likely meant military service.”
Early on, when Johnny tries to join up, he’s told that they had to (essentially) make up all kinds of jobs to have enough for potential citizens.
It quickly became apparent upon viewing that the 1997 Verhoeven film had nothing much to do with Heinlein’s novel except the coincidence of title and a few character names. That said, two of Verhoeven’s story modifications worked pretty well – combining the characters of Lt. Col. DuBois and Lt. Rasczak and making Dizzy Flores a hot chick with a backstory. Michael Ironside gave a splendid performance as “Jean Rasczak” and Clancy Brown also did yeoman work as Sgt. Zim. Overall, the film was a fairly silly would-be burlesque of “militarism” that had to repeatedly fall back on actual military virtues to keep its story going.
Hollywood still being pretty woke, the one thing I’d expect to see in the notional “remake” is more actual story-matching diversity of casting. Juan “Johnny” Rico, Sgt. Zim and Carmen Ibanez were all Filipino in the book. If the character of Sgt. Jelal returns from Verhoeven-ish exile, he was described as “a Finno-Turk from Iskander.” That casting should be interesting – assuming poor old Jelal doesn’t get left out once again.
Jelly was a Finno-Turk from Iskander around Proxima — a swarthy little man who looked like a clerk, but I’ve seen him tackle two berserk privates so big he had to reach up to grab them, crack their heads together like coconuts, step back out of the way while they fell.
Yep, interesting.
“a fairly silly would-be burlesque” is an excellent description of all Verhoeven’s movies. Nothing wrong with that as such, but he thinks he is a Serious European Intellectual who makes Important Films.
Blomkamp is a a far better technician.
Technician, good way to put it
I think it would be more accurate to say that Blomkamp hires good technicians. The looks of District 9 and Elysium are both due to Production Designer Philip Ivey. Ivey was also Art Director on all three films of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The best quote I saw about the movie was on X: “Based on a title by Robert Heinlein”
My take on a good alternative title for the Verhoeven movie that might have been a bigger box office draw: Malibu Space Nazis
That’s similar to what happened to “Fate is the Hunter”. The book, written by renounced aviation author Ernest Gann, is loved by the aviation community. Gann was an airline pilot stating in the late 1930s, and “Fate is the Hunter” describes many things from his career. It’s an excellent book, one of many great books he wrote.
There’s a movie by the same title. All it shares with the book is the title and there’s an airplane in it. It is not a good movie at all.
Bingo!
The first thing I’d look for in this new movie is: Are the Trooper jumpsuits accurate to the book?
One would hope so. CGI could probably have handled armored fighting suits in 1997 but, on top of all the other needed CGI effects, was probably beyond the budget Verhoeven had to work with.
Still, the Mobile Infantry certainly needs to be mobile in some fashion beyond a reliance on shank’s mare. In Verhoeven’s film, they were just foot soldiers with futuristic-looking kit but utterly lacking armor, artillery, air support and anti-air capability.
Dale Dye, in addition to a small role as Sky Marshal Diennes, was also listed as a technical advisor on Starship Troopers. But either his advice was simply disregarded or, once again, budget limitations compromised the force structure portrayed.
Dina Meyer was hotter then and now.
Oh, gawd yes! Smoking hot doesn’t begin to do her justice. I think she’s one of those rare femmes fatales whose going to stay fatale right up until she’s lowered into the ground.
I must admit most movie and TV SF leaves me cold but I’d like to see some of Larry Niven’s stories as movies. Modern CGI should give us believable Kzin and the Man-Kzin Wars series has some good plots including by the late Hal Colebatch. I’d have moved to pre war Wunderland in a heartbeat. Known Space is a goldmine of stories.
Then there ‘s Poul Anderson. “The Queen of Air and Darkness” as a an SF /mystery/psycho thiller?
The Trader Team stories? I wanna see a Wodenite. Chris Hemsworth would make a good David Falkayn but who gets to play Nick van Rijn?
Who indeed? Burl Ives and Brian Dennehy have both, sadly, left us. So, for that matter, has Victor Buono, who also had the requisite twinkle-in-the-eye mischievousness and ample build.
While on the subject of Anderson, I’d nominate either Henry Cavill or Hugh Jackman as Dominic Flandry. Not sure if Chives could be played live-action or if CGI would be called for.
The Anderson story I’d most like to see done as a film is probably The High Crusade.
The book I’d absolutely most like to see given a first-class filmic treatment is Arthur C. Clarke’s Earthlight. Second would be Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy.
Joe Haldeman’s Forever War is, despite being a relatively slim volume, far more meaty than can be given adequate treatment in a single film so it would have to be a franchise or – more probably in this day and age – a streaming service series.
Another property ripe for such treatment would be John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. I have no strong opinions about casting of the lead character, but Gina Carano would be perfect as his “dead” wife.
Oh, yeah, one more thing. Stop making movies of Philip K. Dick soties.
Second the motion.
Stories.