12 Sci-Fi Movie Remakes Coming In 2020 (And Beyond)

6. Starship Troopers

Don't let the quality of the sequels cloud your memory, Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers was brilliant. It is transgressive, entertaining and hugely clever, meshing real guts and glory sci-fi with an affectionate pastiche in the same way that Galaxy Quest did, only with less overt comedy. That's why a remake has been in the works for so long, and decried as unnecessary for just as long.

It's all gone pretty quiet on the remake front, but the recent announcement of a TV show that could reunite the original cast for a continuation say screenwrite Ed Neumeier confirm that there is indeed a remake coming (though he has mixed feelings about it):

”Well, I have mixed feelings about it [the reboot] because I think that what we did with the first Starship is almost not repeatable in a way… I based the structure of Starship Troopers when I was writing it, the structure of WWII propaganda films that the studios made between 1941 and 1944. We don’t really talk about those movies anymore, but that had a very particular structure and they were made during a conflict and they didn’t have an end-point as with Starship ends they’ll keep fighting.”

The reboot would return to Robert A. Heinlein's source material and reimagine Johnny Rico's story, with Neumeier sharing what he's heard about it:

”I’m not sure, their idea is as I understood at a certain point was they said to kind of do An Officer and The Gentleman, Johnny Rico as the Officer and The Gentlemen version of a sci-fi movie. So, maybe you could do that a romantic picture about kids coming up together in the service and one of them becoming an officer and all of that means, you know. It’s really not what Heinlein’s about, but that’s okay I can imagine you could do that. I’m not sure who goes to see that movie though.”

Yeah, let's maybe hope they don't go that way. Still, an entertaining remake would be very welcome.