Well, this seems rather fitting news given that enormous bug photo that’s been floating around the Internet over the past few days: Our friends at Vulture are exclusively reporting that Neal Moritz, the producer behind the Fast & Furious franchise, as well as films like I Am Legend and The Green Hornet, has hired screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) to write a rebooted version of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 sci-fi flick Starship Troopers.
While critics’ reviews for the campy original were largely negative (Roger Ebert called it “the most violent kiddie movie ever made,” and found it lacking in “exhilaration and sheer entertainment”; New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote, “The movie for everyone is, in this case, only for everyone who likes raw meat for breakfast”), like another of Verhoeven’s films — Showgirls — it has become a cult favorite on DVD. That said, it only made $54 million at the box office, barely breaking even. Given that Moritz’s motives are likely financial rather than creative here, we’re curious what it is about his version of Starship Troopers that he thinks will prove more lucrative. Maybe unbeknownst to us, he already has the Twilight kids on board to star? [via The Playlist]