Let's start with a little history. The original comic story takes place during World War II and follows U.S Army Infantryman Sgt. Rock; who fought in the European Theatre and eventually rose to authority within his unit, Easy Company. The unit was made up of a disparate collection of individuals who managed to participate in every major action in the European war.
The first time a film adaptation was attempted for the popular comic series was during the late 1980s andearly 1990s, with Arnold Schwarzenegger attached to portray the role. Despite the seeming incongruity of an Austrian actor playing an American G.I. during World War II was explained by depicting Rock as having a German-American father and being able to speak German (a skill he uses to ambush the enemy). This time around, the project never came to fruition.
In 2008 Joel Silver and Guy Ritchie revitalized the property. They planned on making the film as close to the source material as possible and rumors abounded that Bruce Willis was attached to play the gritty, old Sarge.
Today, the Los Angeles Times reported the latest news from Joel Silver himself about the film, and it doesn't sound good:
"It [takes place] a little bit in the future," Silver revealed about the rewritten setting.
"As a war movie, it's not going to be 'where it's been,' it's going to be 'where it's going.' We didn't want to do Iraq, we didn't want to do a contemporary war. We wanted to do a sort of futuristic war. It's pretty strong. Chad St. John wrote the script and we've got Francis Lawrence involved in developing it with us. It's not a 'go' movie yet but I'm feeling good about it." Well, that's definitely a shocker. Unlike many comic characters that have seen time setting differences throughout their lifetimes, Sgt. Rock has always been a World War II era grunt. The European Theater wasn't so much the background for the comic, but it was treated almost as another character. Is this just another treatment of the film that will never see the light of day? Silver continued:
"We've done a new draft that actually came in this week. We have a shot at that one now. I feel good about it. That one might happen." It appears that this Sgt. Rock film will be less
Saving Private Ryan and more
Starship Troopers.
Information courtesy of the LA Times MPP - This is a perfect example of the unoriginality in Hollywood. Why would someone take a character who is ROOTED in the past and haphazardly throw him into the future? Why not just make a futuristic war movie and NOT base it on a comic? Because there definitely haven't been enough of those kinds of movies out lately.
I think the little light bulb over Mr. Silver's head came to life while he was watching
Avatar.
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