Sony is in the process of rebooting the subervisve, anti-fascist 1997 film Starship Troopers – also known as the movie with a post-Doogie Howser, pre-Barney Stinson Neil Patrick Harris. The reboot follows the trend of such franchise remakes as RoboCop and Total Recall, where satire and irony get cut out and replaced with 3D and totally slick graphics.

But, um, seriously, they’re re-making Starship Troopers sans all of the over-the-top-gore that made Starship Troopers even vaguely memorable in the first place, aiming for a PG-13 flick that will be easier to market.

And there’ll probably be a Denise Richards equivalent. I’m guessing Imogen Poots.

Producer Toby Jaffe – the guy responsible for turning Total Recall into a forgettable bit of Colin Farrel scenery-chewing – stated in an interview the reboot will be far closer to the original Starship Trooper novels by Robert Heinlein, than in Paul Verhoeven’s unfortunately witty and dark version;

Verhoeven made his movie a critique of fascism…whereas Heinlein was writing from the perspective of someone who had served in World War II. Y’know, one man’s fascism is another man’s patriotism.

Which shows just how far we’ve advanced since 1997, being now able to say things like that without even a hint of irony and never having to get tangled up in questions over whether or not a reductive ode to militarism slash endorsement of fascism might not be something you want to make.

On the upside, they’re probably keeping the part of the movie where they spend a lot of time killing giant space bugs, so that’ll be fun to watch. And I guess it’s nice to know that it’s not the only property that’s getting dragged through the mud for the sake of franchising.

[Source: Empire]