Starship Troopers Reboot: Less Violent, More Patriotic

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Ahtman**

Article

In the previous newsreel regarding the planned reboot of Starship Troopers, we learned that, as with the similar remakes of Total Recall and RoboCop, the new version would strip away nearly all of Paul Verhoeven's subversive irony, something that is, after all, what keeps the Dutch mired in sloth, stuffing their smirking faces with sauerkraut and chuckling about "subtext" in their hash bars and sex clubs. Recently producer Toby Jaffe—who was also partly responsible for cutting the satirical chaff from Total Recall, until he got to the Len Wiseman action movie that was always at its center, apparently—reaffirmed to Empire that his Starship Troopers would be more faithful to both Robert Heinlein's original novel and American values by being less violent, "grounded," and way more patriotic. And not patriotic in an ironic way that the Dutch would like.

"The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to make it that violent," Jaffe said by way of explaining how the revamped Starship Troopers would eschew the darkly comic, over-the-top gore that arguably made anyone remember Starship Troopers in the first place, instead aiming for a softer PG-13 rating that would make it more marketable and therefore better. And in addition to new technology that will allow them to include the armored exoskeletons known as Jump Suits, new advancements in ignoring irony will also allow Jaffe and Co. to make a straightforward translation of Heinlein's ode to militarism, without getting hung up on those longstanding questions of whether it's an oversimplified glorification of war or an endorsement of fascism. "Y’know, one man’s fascism is another man’s patriotism," Jaffe says with no hint of sarcasm, as that sort of thing isn't done anymore. Anyway, with all the violence and satire finally out of the way, the film can concentrate on the well-rounded characters that Heinlein didn't create.

Well at least people will get to see the Jump Suits. Maybe.

**AduroT**

I... I don't know what to think.

**Jihadin**

Bugs are going to get a more...alienish look I bet

**Hordini**

I knew that some people thought (incorrectly) that Starship Troopers was an endorsement of fascism, but I didn't realize that there were that many people who thought it was an oversimplified glorification of war.

Maybe they should read the book again.

I am interested in seeing the Jump Suits though.

**Mannahnin**

Sarcastic jackass with low standards for satire, no understanding of the word "subtext", lazily repeating ignorant Heinlein bash is sarcastic jackass with low standards for satire, no understanding of the word "subtext", lazily repeating ignorant Heinlein bash.

On other news, Onion AV club is apparently going downhill.

**Hordini**

Mannahnin wrote:Sarcastic jackass with low standards for satire, no understanding of the word "subtext", lazily repeating ignorant Heinlein bash is sarcastic jackass with low standards for satire, no understanding of the word "subtext", lazily repeating ignorant Heinlein bash.

On other news, Onion AV club is apparently going downhill.

Thank you. I'm glad it's not just me!

**LordofHats**

I'm ready for another half assed film, but seeing as the book doesn't really provide that much material for a film to use maybe we shouldn't be that surprised that the films end up half assed

**Mannahnin**

I heard the cartoons were good? You should be able to make a solid sci-fi actioner in there just with the concepts. Making a movie out of Juan Rico's internal journey- Heinlein's discussion of the responsibilities of citizenship combined with his take on an ideal military, is a trickier proposition. I rather doubt they're going to do that any justice.

It would be kind of awesome if they actually cast a Filipino as the lead, though. Race barely gets discussed in the book, but what is in there makes it wonderfully progressive on that subject, especially for the time.

**Ahtman**

Mannahnin wrote:Sarcastic jackass with low standards for satire, no understanding of the word "subtext", lazily repeating ignorant Heinlein bash is sarcastic jackass with low standards for satire, no understanding of the word "subtext", lazily repeating ignorant Heinlein bash.

On other news, Onion AV club is apparently going downhill.

All the AV Club news is reported in a way that barely hides their contempt for the stories. It isn't the Onion, and the target is different. The Onion is fake news, whereas news story on AV Club are real, but often they wish didn't report them. If you think this was snarky, you should read the news story where Tyler Perry announced he hates Prometheus and wants to make a Sci-fi movie.

**Mannahnin**

In the past I've gotten some good (usually snarky, but not in an ignorant or stupid way) reads about music and movies from the AV Club.

**Palindrome**

It doesn't sound much better in the original interview http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34394.

I think the tone of the AV article sums up my opinions of this remake nicely.

How do you give links a title?

**Lynata**

Once again I feel my bias against remakes and reimaginations vindicated.

Palindrome wrote:How do you give links a title?

With tags.

[url=http://yourlinkgoeshere.com]title of link[/url] presto

**sebster**

You know, I've heard a lot of people talk about how complex the themes were in Starship Troopers, but it read pretty much like straight forward military sci fi to me*. I read it a long time ago, and enjoyed it at the time, so I'm willing to believe I missed some greater political point. Not to say the movie version wasn't pretty goofy in its attack on facism and mocking the general silliness of action movies (as neither of these are really part of the original book).

More than anything, though, I'm disappointed with how Hollywood's answer to 'you can't make a profit on an expensive movie with an R rating' seems to be 'turn it into another generic PG13 movie'. I mean, Starship Troopers seems like the perfect candidate to make on the cheap, opening up all kinds

*Not overtly fascist, just a little more right wing than most right wing military sci fi. I mean it's pretty much 'boo the stupid selfish common people, yay the army' you get in all that kind of stuff.

**Tibbsy**

Mannahnin wrote:I heard the cartoons were good?

Might just be me, but I thought they were fething awesome

Not sure what to think of a re-made film though. The first I liked, but the other two are great steaming piles of failure. Hopefully a re-make won't go down the same route and be full of gak.

**Ahtman**

Mannahnin wrote:In the past I've gotten some good (usually snarky, but not in an ignorant or stupid way) reads about music and movies from the AV Club.

Like anything, there are highs and lows, and the articles are the meat of the site, not the news updates. This was a bit more absurd than usual to sure, but having sat through enough Paul Verhoeven and Lars von Trier films I appreciate the pokes at that kind of attitude in film making.

**Kanluwen**

Mannahnin wrote:I heard the cartoons were good?

They really were. The material is a bit tame, but you still see piles of dead bugs everywhere.

The Skinny/Human interactions were, by far, the most 'bold' part of the show I thought.

**George Spiggott**

I think this could be good. If they play it straight enough it will still come across as irony.

The only thing they should keep is the 'do you want to know more?' bits. They should actually be interactive on the DVD/Blueray release. It's going to bomb at the cinema, they may as well concentrate on the DVD/Blueray version.

**Frazzled**

AduroT wrote:I... I don't know what to think.

Ditto.

Cool battlesuits - good
Ode to Fascism - bad

I'd bet good money its just a video game now, aka any words not related to shooting stuff is lightly Stalingradesque but only lightly.

Guy joins the "army"
Bug s attack
humans fight back
the end.

No morals whatsover, not even Michael Bay level "fondness" for American military hardware.

**Mannahnin**

sebster wrote:You know, I've heard a lot of people talk about how complex the themes were in Starship Troopers, but it read pretty much like straight forward military sci fi to me*. *Not overtly fascist, just a little more right wing than most right wing military sci fi. I mean it's pretty much 'boo the stupid selfish common people, yay the army' you get in all that kind of stuff

I don't know anyone who thinks of it as particularly complex. I have seen a lot of people misread it and think it has something to do with fascism. Verhoeven among them. And no, the book doesn't boo non-military people.

sebster wrote:Not to say the movie version wasn't pretty goofy in its attack on facism and mocking the general silliness of action movies (as neither of these are really part of the original book)

The movie takes people's shallow misinterpretations and turns them up to "11: Pee on Heinlein's grave level".

**Squigsquasher**

Not really sure about this. On the one hand, the Starship Troopers film was pretty awful (although saying that, I am slightly biased as I am a misotheist-I believe that if there is a god, there ought not to be) but I did find the satirical side quite funny.

If Hollywood gets their grasping claws on it, it will just be another "America is great!" pile of patriotic, jingoistic piffle.

Get Ridley Scott on it. He will do it justice

**Pacific**

LordofHats wrote:I'm ready for another half assed film, but seeing as the book doesn't really provide that much material for a film to use maybe we shouldn't be that surprised that the films end up half assed

Yes that's it really.

We finally get the suits (although not how I imagine them to be - can't see that thing skipping in from the upper atmosphere, and where is the launch tube for the nuclear grenade?) but there won't be any of the political/sociological commentary of Heinlein's book.

**Frazzled**

Squigsquasher wrote:Not really sure about this. On the one hand, the Starship Troopers film was pretty awful (although saying that, I am slightly biased as I am a misotheist-I believe that if there is a god, there ought not to be) but I did find the satirical side quite funny.

If Hollywood gets their grasping claws on it, it will just be another "America is great!" pile of patriotic, jingoistic piffle.

Get Ridley Scott on it. He will do it justice

After Prometheus? No actually.

**Easy E**

Reflect more American ideals? What the hell does that even mean?

They should get Michael Bay on this. Then it would be EPIC! Painfully, painfully Epic.

**KingCracker**

So....they are taking the best parts of the movie..... and tossing them? So...no more batman in batman movies? No more bananas in splits? Are they fething kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?! And yes, you KNOW they are going to make the bugs look like aliens, thats the kindda gak Hollywood does to good movies

*dear god, Ive used

like 6 times this morning....I need to get out of here

**CT GAMER**

As long as they keep the shower scene it won't be a total loss...

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Frazzled wrote:
Squigsquasher wrote:Not really sure about this. On the one hand, the Starship Troopers film was pretty awful (although saying that, I am slightly biased as I am a misotheist-I believe that if there is a god, there ought not to be) but I did find the satirical side quite funny.

If Hollywood gets their grasping claws on it, it will just be another "America is great!" pile of patriotic, jingoistic piffle.

Get Ridley Scott on it. He will do it justice

After Prometheus? No actually.

Scott would make sure it had no Arachnids in it but looked very "pretty"...

**Medium of Death**

Aren't the bugs in the book more technologically advanced than they appear in the film? Not sure as I haven't read the book myself, just read that posted in a couple of similar threads.

**chaos0xomega**

Im looking forward to this. Heinlein is a pesonal hero. Yes, I'm not afraid to say that I consider myself a "Heinleinist".

**helgrenze**

I say enough with the rehashing...
Lets see Retief, Stainless Steel Rat, or even Phule on the big screen.

**AduroT**

Medium of Death wrote:Aren't the bugs in the book more technologically advanced than they appear in the film? Not sure as I haven't read the book myself, just read that posted in a couple of similar threads.

That depends... Do you consider each Warrior bugs wielding two las cannons each to be more technologically advanced?

**Squigsquasher**

Frazzled wrote:
Squigsquasher wrote:Not really sure about this. On the one hand, the Starship Troopers film was pretty awful (although saying that, I am slightly biased as I am a misotheist-I believe that if there is a god, there ought not to be) but I did find the satirical side quite funny.

If Hollywood gets their grasping claws on it, it will just be another "America is great!" pile of patriotic, jingoistic piffle.

Get Ridley Scott on it. He will do it justice

After Prometheus? No actually.

I liked Prometheus...