Columbia Pictures has tapped District 9 filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to write and direct a new adaptation of Starship Troopers, per THR. According to the trade outlet, Blomkamp’s new Starship Troopers will fully bypass Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film and its subsequent direct-to-video sequels, instead opting to return to the original source material of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 sci-fi novel.
This is an interesting decision, but not necessarily a surprising one, as Verhoeven’s film is widely noted for its satirical take on the novel, inverting the book’s outwardly fascist themes in order to decry them. Whether Blomkamp will have his own unique take on the source material remains to be seen, but there’s a good bet the director will have his own stylistic spin on the story to say the least.
As those who have read the novel or seen the 1997 film know, Starship Troopers tells the story of Earth going to war with a star-spanning race of insectoid beings. The original 1959 novel found controversy in its own time for its warhawk themes of military power making moral right, its approach to depicting gender, and even its use of fake terminology akin to slurs used to refer to the enemies of Earth.
Verhoeven’s 1997 film carefully deconstructs these themes with a satirical edge, offering less of a direct adaptation of the novel and more of a modern response to its controversies through the lens of Verhoeven’s own anti-fascist beliefs. Blomkamp’s previous film Disctrict 9 turned a critical eye to themes of segregation, racism, and violence against minority groups through the metaphor of aliens on Earth, so it feels likely he’ll have his own interpretation of and response to the controversial themes of the original 1959 Starship Troopers novel.
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