Paul Verhoeven became one of the biggest directors in Hollywood after helming huge hits like RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct, but his career took a large nosedive following the disastrous Showgirls in 1995. 2000’s Hollow Man would mark the last time he got behind the camera on a major Hollywood production, but in between those two projects he made one of the smartest and most subversive blockbusters in history without anyone even noticing.
Starship Troopers may have landed with a thud at the box office and received lukewarm critical reviews in November 1997, but in the years since, the movie has become a firm cult favorite and has undergone a massive reappraisal as a razor-sharp satire of the military-industrial complex, foreign policy and capitalism in general, all wrapped up as a $100 million effects-heavy sci-fi epic.
The pic would go on to spawn two live-action and two anime sequels that went straight to home video and a short-lived CGI-animated TV show, but we’ve now heard that Sony are keen to reboot Starship Troopers with one eye on launching a franchise, which makes sense.
According to our intel – which comes from the same sources that told us a new Scream movie, National Treasure 3 and Now You See Me 3 are in development, all of which were correct – Sony are looking to build their portfolio of franchises given that twelve of their fourteen highest-grossing movies involve either Marvel, James Bond or Jumanji, and they see Starship Troopers as the ideal opportunity to launch a big budget sci-fi series of their own. And while it’s still far too early for casting, they do have their eye on Top Gun: Maverick‘s Joseph Kosinski to get behind the camera.
Of course, the problem with Starship Troopers is that it doesn’t come with much in the way of name recognition or a built-in fanbase, but with the right creative team attached, a new approach to the source material could turn out to be a refreshing change of pace, with blockbuster sci-fi having become a little stale over the last few years.
