More On "Starship Troopers" Redux

Now that their Total Recall remake is ready for its August 3rd release producers Neal Moritz and Toby Jaffe are talking about the new version of another sci-fi cult classic - "Starship Troopers".

First announced last December when screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, who have written the superhero movies Thor and X-Men: First Class were charged to pen the new Troopers screenplay

The original film--of which I am a fan-was based upon the book by noted sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein and directed by Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) the story chronicled a war between mankind and giant alien bugs, following a military unit as they progressed from recruits through to ranking officers. The film featured impressive Oscar nominated visual effects, gory violence, a fair amount of male and female nudity, a cast of young unknowns with equal amounts of sex appeal, and a tone that blended war-time action with a campy commentary on fascism.

Starring Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside, the film had 2 DTV sequels Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder; As well as a TV series called "Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles"

Jaffe told Empire that this new version will be closer to Heinlen's work "Verhoeven took it from one extreme and made it almost comical, whereas our job, as I see it, is to be a little more faithful to the book, and ground it a little more. The novel is extremely widely read, even today; it's on school and university reading lists, and it's read at all the military academies in the United States."

Jaffe adds "Verhoeven had an agenda that made his movie a critique of fascism, whereas I think Heinlein was writing from the perspective of someone who had served in World War II as an American soldier, and was writing it at the time of the Korean War. Y'know, one man's fascism is another man's patriotism."

Also gone. Verhoeven's gory violence and tittilation - "The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to have it be that violent. It's about re-interpreting it with a very new sensibility for a new generation that doesn't really know the first film. It gives the studio, and us as producers, the opportunity to reintroduce it in a new way."

Jaffe also confirms that they plan to make full use of the giant mechanical Jump Suits from the books which the heroes use to fight the bugs.

No director is yet attached