Excl: Paul Verhoeven shares his thoughts on the Starship Troopers remake!

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

The announcement of a STARSHIP TROOPERS remake has caused great waves in the fan community, but our very own Eric Walkuski sat down to get a perspective straight from the horse's mouth, original director Paul Verhoeven. Here's his very honest take on the direction the remake is taking:

[Producer] Neal Moritz is doing it, he also did the remake of Total Recall. I think what they'll do is take out everything that can be upsetting. The satire, leaning toward fascism, all that stuff. Saying to the audience, 'Yeah, they're heroes, but they're also fascists.' You should do that now, especially now. They announced already that they're going back to the book, and the book is really militaristic. It's not fascistic like in Germany, but it's leaning there. It would be [my] movie, straight.

They certainly won't make references to Leni Riefenstahl like we did. I think it was really interesting to seduce the audience into seeing them as heroes but then to also tell them they might not be okay. They certainly won't do that because it would be controversial, and that is probably not economically the best idea. It would probably get them an R-rating, and they don't want that anymore.

The remakes that I've seen, of Robocop and Total Recall, are the same thing. Every ambiguity out, all these layers out, and PG-13. Just straight bang bang, shoot shoot. They were well made but they were not worth doing.

That's certainly not encouraging, although Verhoeven was diplomatic when asked if he would see the remake:

I'll look at it because I know there will be questions, and I think it's a bit silly to say, 'Well, I don't want to look at it.' I'll look at it. Until now I've been… I won't even say disappointed. It's pleasant to see that they were wrong.

FREDDY VS. JASON scribes Mark Swift and Damian Shannon are penning the STARSHIP TROOPERS remake, from Robert  A. Heinlen's 1959 novel:

In the distant future, the Earth is at war with a race of giant alien insects. Little is known about the Bugs except that they are intent on the eradication of all human life. But there was a time before the war… A Mobile Infantry travels to distant alien planets to take the war to the Bugs. They are a ruthless enemy with only one mission: Survival of their species no matter what the cost…