Disemboweled bodies, gaping wounds and dripping blood are just a few trademarks in a Paul Verhoeven action movie, especially Starship Troopers, RoboCop and Total Recall. Violence is part of their charm and with all three films currently at different stages of being remade, the question of the universal appeal of excessive violence has been raised.
Total Recall comes out in a few weeks; RoboCop goes into production soon; and Starship Troopers is still being developed. In an interview with Empire Magazine, producer Toby Jaffe said that the remake of Starship Troopers will be less satirical, less violent, more patriotic and generally more in line with Robert Heinlein’s novel than was Verhoeven’s take. Read more after the jump.
Here’s what Jaffe, who also produced the Total Recall remake, told Empire Magazine about both films:
"The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to make it that violent. With Recall in particular, we made a conscious choice to keep it tonally closer to something like Minority Report. It gives the studio, and us as producers, the opportunity to reintroduce it in a new way.
Verhoeven took [Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel] from one extreme and made it almost comical, whereas our job is to be a little more faithful to the book, and ground it a little more…. 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…"
One of the things Verhoeven wanted to do, but couldn’t, was include the jump suits from the novel. Even with the massive budget and huge special effects of his movie, in the late ’90s it was too expensive to put that tech on screen. That’s not the case anymore. More from Jaffe:
"Working in a visual effects renaissance as we are, we have the ability to do so much more now. We can do the Jump Suits [armoured exoskeletons from Heinlein's novel], for example, which I don’t think they could have done before."
From an immediate financial standpoint, making a film less violent for a PG-13 rating makes sense. Less restrictions means a bigger potential in-theater audience. But producers have to look at the big picture. If Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers didn’t have its violence and non-traditional subtext, it probably wouldn’t stand the test of time in the way it does. The film surely sustained its popularity precisely because it was an unflinching, R-rated film.
Do you think a PG-13 Starship Troopers will be as effective as the original?
Nope. Don't want. Heinlein's novel sucked and Verhoeven’s take was awesome.
Dr Mabuse
06-27-12, 05:56 PM
No.
PhantomStranger
06-27-12, 06:00 PM
Brutal, Hollywood is now remaking movies that are barely older than a decade. The economics for Hollywood have totally drained the system of any creativity and we are left with endless rehashes of existing properties. So how soon before we see a rebooted Matrix? Maybe one this time with coherent scripts for the sequels...
Nesbit
06-27-12, 06:20 PM
Awesome title. No, I would not.
Why So Blu?
06-27-12, 06:25 PM
Nope. Eat a dick. Bitches.
TallGuyMe
06-27-12, 06:38 PM
the only reboot I would be interested in is if it were MORE violent, and MORE satirical. I have no interest in Justin Beiber from Klendathu.
davidh777
06-27-12, 07:01 PM
I'm OK with it if it has more nudity
Dr. DVD
06-27-12, 07:11 PM
Will they still suck his brains out?
Bluelitespecial
06-27-12, 07:47 PM
So the new Total Recall will probably be pg13 and now a new Starship Troopers. I think they would still have to make the new Robocop a hard R if it has any chance of being good. But I wont watch a new Starship Troopers.
sauce07
06-27-12, 08:18 PM
PG-13 Basic Instinct is right around the corner.
Jules Winfield
06-27-12, 08:29 PM
Obligatory "Have you seen the movie? We'll always have the original!" Fuck you, person who says that.
Groucho
06-27-12, 09:41 PM
Not sure why people are up in arms about this. The original is still out there for us all to fap to.
Hokeyboy
06-27-12, 09:48 PM
What? You mean no more charisma-free non-acting from Casper van Dien and incessant babbling-fool grinning from Denise Richards? They're raping the classics, man! :mad: :mad: :mad:
mcfly
06-27-12, 10:29 PM
Not interested. The first is a guilty pleasure that I really like. This sounds like a mess.
JesseCuster
06-27-12, 10:34 PM
If Kristen Bell is in this and buck arse naked, I'm 100% for it. Otherwise eat it money grubbing asshats.
UAIOE
06-27-12, 10:44 PM
the only reboot I would be interested in is if it were MORE violent, and MORE satirical.
This is the right answer.
B5Erik
06-27-12, 11:07 PM
MEDIC!!!!
I'm ok with a PG-13 remake/reboot. If it's closer to Heinlein's original story then I'm all for that. We WILL still have the original (and it's much less worthy sequels). No harm, no foul.
I'd like to see what they can do making it closer to the source material.
dugan
06-27-12, 11:19 PM
If it's pretty much going to be alive action Exosquad, then I'm there.
movie diva
06-27-12, 11:33 PM
the only reboot I would be interested in is if it were MORE violent, and MORE satirical. I have no interested in Justin Beiber from Klendathu.
:thumbsup:
Blade
06-28-12, 02:01 AM
If they're so keen to be able to do the suits, they should make an Armor movie and not remake this.
I would like to see a more faithful reproduction of the book as I thought it was far more interesting than the film, but I don't know how popular that would really be. I think it would fly over the heads of the regular movie going audience and a lot of other people will just read it as facist propaganda.
kd5
06-28-12, 07:50 AM
If they're so keen to be able to do the suits, they should make an Armor movie and not remake this.
I'd rather see them do a movie patterned after Armor too (Felix kicked some ASS in that book!):
If Kristen Bell is in this and buck arse naked, I'm 100% for it. Otherwise eat it money grubbing asshats.
While my interest would be renewed with JesseCuster's idea, I don't think you two understand the PG-13 rating. :)
The Bus
06-28-12, 09:03 AM
Is this a play to distract him from making that Jesus rape movie?
Xander
06-28-12, 09:03 AM
Put me in the camp that found Verhoeven's take much more entertaining than the actual novel. Not really interested in a version that's more like the book. :shrug:
Jules Winfield
06-28-12, 11:49 AM
What? You mean no more charisma-free non-acting from Casper van Dien and incessant babbling-fool grinning from Denise Richards? They're raping the classics, man! :mad: :mad: :mad:
Verhoeven knew exactly what he was doing when he cast them. To me, it is a classic. But yeah, they're horrible actors.
If Kristen Bell is in this and buck arse naked, I'm 100% for it. Otherwise eat it money grubbing asshats.
Save that for the Showgirls remake.
Goat3001
06-28-12, 12:25 PM
I'm going to go ahead and be that guy and say that this isn't a remake/reboot, it's another adaptation of the book.
Solid Snake PAC
06-28-12, 01:17 PM
I'm going to go ahead and be that guy and say that this isn't a remake/reboot, it's another adaptation of the book.
yeah, I didn't want to be that guy this time...cuz I'm usually that fuck.
I've mild interest in this just to see wtf they do w/ it. I never liked Starship Troopers. It was too much for me w/ it's tone. Even as a kid..all I cared about was the bug killing. Good action but it felt too much for me w/ it's cheese. Not a bad movie, it's actually good..but it wasn't for me.
Matthew Chmiel
06-28-12, 01:28 PM
I've mild interest in this just to see wtf they do w/ it. I never liked Starship Troopers. It was too much me w/ it's tone. Even as a kid..all I cared about was the bug killing. Good action but it felt too much for me w/ it's cheese. Not a bad movie, it's actually good..but it wasn't for me.
I saw it at, what, age twelve or thirteen when it came out.
Now I appreciate it even more considering we're the bad guys.
dom56
06-28-12, 03:32 PM
No co-ed shower scene = No sale.
AnonomusBob15
06-28-12, 03:39 PM
this is going to suck. the first one could have been a masterpiece if not for the casting and art direction. Everything else was great and I can still watch it every so-often.
Chad
06-28-12, 04:45 PM
Damn those pedophilic $tudio execs pandering to young asses in theater seats!
WeylandYutani
06-28-12, 05:16 PM
this is going to suck. the first one could have been a masterpiece if not for the casting and art direction.
Verhoeven's movie had problems that went far beyond just simple miscasting and tired art direction.
Terrell
06-28-12, 05:23 PM
Well, the original was dog shit filled with the same atrocious acting that you find in almost every Verhoeven film. The fact that people hold this film out as being worth damn never ceases to amaze me. I don't have any interest in the original or this remake.
Jules Winfield
06-28-12, 05:44 PM
I don't have any interest in the original or this remake.
Then you've wasted time posting in this thread. Congrats!
Why So Blu?
06-28-12, 08:31 PM
Verhoeven's movie had problems that went far beyond just simple miscasting and tired art direction.
Yeah, like the crappy special fx.
/sarcasm
Groucho
06-28-12, 08:31 PM
lol @ people dissing the acting in the original
Why So Blu?
06-28-12, 08:38 PM
lol @ people dissing the acting in the original
Shhhh, I don't think they're in on the joke. ;)
Gdrlv
06-28-12, 09:17 PM
The AV Club's article about this made me laugh...
Starship Troopers reboot to be less violent and more patriotic—would you like to know more?
In the previous newsreel regarding the planned reboot of Starship Troopers, we learned that, as with the similar remakes of Total Recall and RoboCop, the new version would strip away nearly all of Paul Verhoeven's subversive irony, something that is, after all, what keeps the Dutch mired in sloth, stuffing their smirking faces with sauerkraut and chuckling about "subtext" in their hash bars and sex clubs. Recently producer Toby Jaffe—who was also partly responsible for cutting the satirical chaff from Total Recall, until he got to the Len Wiseman action movie that was always at its center, apparently—reaffirmed to Empire that his Starship Troopers would be more faithful to both Robert Heinlein's original novel and American values by being less violent, "grounded," and way more patriotic. And not patriotic in an ironic way that the Dutch would like.
"The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to make it that violent," Jaffe said by way of explaining how the revamped Starship Troopers would eschew the darkly comic, over-the-top gore that arguably made anyone remember Starship Troopers in the first place, instead aiming for a softer PG-13 rating that would make it more marketable and therefore better. And in addition to new technology that will allow them to include the armored exoskeletons known as Jump Suits, new advancements in ignoring irony will also allow Jaffe and Co. to make a straightforward translation of Heinlein's ode to militarism, without getting hung up on those longstanding questions of whether it's an oversimplified glorification of war or an endorsement of fascism. "Y’know, one man’s fascism is another man’s patriotism," Jaffe says with no hint of sarcasm, as that sort of thing isn't done anymore. Anyway, with all the violence and satire finally out of the way, the film can concentrate on the well-rounded characters that Heinlein didn't create.
Starship Troopers reboot to be less violent and more patriotic—would you like to know more?
In the previous newsreel regarding the planned reboot of Starship Troopers, we learned that, as with the similar remakes of Total Recall and RoboCop, the new version would strip away nearly all of Paul Verhoeven's subversive irony, something that is, after all, what keeps the Dutch mired in sloth, stuffing their smirking faces with sauerkraut and chuckling about "subtext" in their hash bars and sex clubs. Recently producer Toby Jaffe—who was also partly responsible for cutting the satirical chaff from Total Recall, until he got to the Len Wiseman action movie that was always at its center, apparently—reaffirmed to Empire that his Starship Troopers would be more faithful to both Robert Heinlein's original novel and American values by being less violent, "grounded," and way more patriotic. And not patriotic in an ironic way that the Dutch would like.
"The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to make it that violent," Jaffe said by way of explaining how the revamped Starship Troopers would eschew the darkly comic, over-the-top gore that arguably made anyone remember Starship Troopers in the first place, instead aiming for a softer PG-13 rating that would make it more marketable and therefore better. And in addition to new technology that will allow them to include the armored exoskeletons known as Jump Suits, new advancements in ignoring irony will also allow Jaffe and Co. to make a straightforward translation of Heinlein's ode to militarism, without getting hung up on those longstanding questions of whether it's an oversimplified glorification of war or an endorsement of fascism. "Y’know, one man’s fascism is another man’s patriotism," Jaffe says with no hint of sarcasm, as that sort of thing isn't done anymore. Anyway, with all the violence and satire finally out of the way, the film can concentrate on the well-rounded characters that Heinlein didn't create.
lol @ people dissing the acting in the original
Yeah, the 90210 level of expression brought seething humanism to all new levels of sublime cinematic hoo-hah...
I get the satire. I'm in on the joke. It just didn't work. :shrug: And when people throw around the phrase "the original CLASSIC" in reference to the 1997 movie, it's time to cauterize some polyps off the little grey cells.
Ash Ketchum
06-29-12, 05:24 AM
The problem with this whole project is that the book was a tract promoting Heinlein's peculiar agenda (no one should be allowed to vote unless they've served in the military). That's it! Verhoeven took virtually the last 13 pages (the only part that has an insect battle in it) and expanded it to feature-length and added all the satire, the gore, and nude co-ed showers. If you go back to the book what do you have? Not enough for a film.
Japanese animators made a six-part series based on this back in the 1980s. It's never been released in the U.S. There are scenes in it that were not in the book but had counterparts in the Verhoeven movie, which led me to think that Verhoeven, or at least his writers, had seen the anime.
kd5
06-29-12, 06:50 AM
I enjoyed the original Starship Troopers enough that I have it in my collection and we still watch it from time to time. I'd hate to see it turned into some nicey nice PG-13 crapfest. Don't they have anything better to do? -kd5-
Solid Snake PAC
06-29-12, 01:21 PM
I enjoyed the original Starship Troopers enough that I have it in my collection and we still watch it from time to time. I'd hate to see it turned into some nicey nice PG-13 crapfest. Don't they have anything better to do? -kd5-
While I've no personal stake in the original film..you do understand that this film isn't a remake?
For those that read the book, if YOU can imagine a film based off it in some way...could it be a PG-13 film? I've never read it though it's on that long ass list that'll eventually lead me to it.
Ash Ketchum
06-29-12, 01:29 PM
While I've no personal stake in the original film..you do understand that this film isn't a remake?
For those that read the book, if YOU can imagine a film based off it in some way...could it be a PG-13 film? I've never read it though it's on that long ass list that'll eventually lead me to it.
The book is barely a PG. It was written for young readers.
RoboDad
06-29-12, 01:32 PM
If The Return of the King could be made PG-13, then Starship Troopers can easily be made PG-13 (and yes, I have read both).
WeylandYutani
06-29-12, 01:36 PM
lol @ people dissing the acting in the original
The acting doesn't get a free pass even if Verhoeven says it was all supposed to be "satire".
kd5
06-29-12, 03:42 PM
While I've no personal stake in the original film..you do understand that this film isn't a remake?
Since this was patterned after Heinlein's book I agree that this is not a remake of the movie, but it is another movie about the same book. If they're going to do that then why don't they make a version of Eragon and/or The Golden Compass that everybody likes so they can get on with the rest of those stories? -kd5-
Solid Snake PAC
06-29-12, 03:59 PM
probably cuz they're not popular. Even after the release like ST has gotten?
Buy: