“Starship Troopers” is being made anew at Sony’s Columbia Pictures, TheWrap has learned.
The project is not a remake or a reboot of director Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 sci-fi movie, studio insiders said. Instead, the filmmakers are going back to the source material — a novel by Robert Heinlein. Nobody who worked on the 1997 film will be involved in the new project.
Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, who wrote the upcoming “Baywatch” comedy starring Zach Efron and Dwayne Johnson, will pen the screenplay.
“Fast & Furious” producer Neal H. Moritz is producing along with Toby Jaffe (both worked on the original “Total Recall”).
The film is based on Heinlein’s 1959 sci-fi book about a futuristic Alien-fighting military force and soldier Johnny Rico.
Verhoeven’s 1997 version, starring Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards, was widely panned when it came out but went on to be something of a cheeky cult classic.
Matthew Milam is overseeing the project for the studio.