A gun, a bag and a talking hat.

July 16, 2018 2:20 AM

Director Duncan Jones teased his next film would be a comic book movie... now he has revealed it'll be a Rogue Trooper film from the comic 2000 AD

Rogue Trooper - created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons - is probably less well known than 2000AD's main character Judge Dredd (who has already appeared in two movies and a forthcoming TV series) but he is a prominent second-ranker having appeared in the comic since 1981. Blue skinned GI (Genetic Infantryman) Rogue, on the Souther side in a perpetual war against the Norts, searches for the Traitor General who killed all of his fellow GIs in the Quartz Zone Massacre. Three of Rogue's old war buddies live on as 'biochips' in his equipment - Gunnar (helps with shooting stuff), Bagman (supplying grenades and other ordinance) and Helm (... sensors?). In his adventures Rogue has encountered many weird and wonderful combatants in the war... and disco dancing!

Rogue has already appeared in a number of video games, a board game and fan film

posted by fearfulsymmetry (21 comments total)

Halo Jones next please.
posted by pompomtom at 2:50 AM on July 16, 2018 [9 favorites]

Now that Jones has both the failed video game adaptation (Warcraft) and the leaden personal passion project (Mute) out of the way, I'm hoping that this ends up being a return to form.
posted by Strange Interlude at 3:58 AM on July 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Nah, ABC Warriors next please.
posted by dowcrag at 3:59 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

ABC warriors got a mention in the Stallone judge Dredd film, didn't they? Strontium Dogs would be cool. Rogue Trooper was a childhood favourite of mine though, so I'm a bit nervous about this.
posted by trif at 4:12 AM on July 16, 2018

Perhaps next we can look forward to Abelard Snazz, The Man With The Multi-Storey Mind, as the first successful Alan Moore movie adaptation.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:30 AM on July 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm still holding out hope for a Sinister Dexter TV series myself.
posted by entity447b at 4:51 AM on July 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

I AM EXCITE THIS IS THE SECOND BEST PIECE OF NEWS I HAVE HAD TODAY
posted by each day we work at 5:22 AM on July 16, 2018

I love fan films. The amount of effort and co-ordination put into that just for the sheer love of it. Astounding. I look forward to Jones new project even thought I'm unfamiliar with Rogue Trooper as a character.

Hopefully Jones has learned some valuable lessons from directing the World of Warcraft Movie.
posted by Faintdreams at 5:22 AM on July 16, 2018

Remember after The Blair Witch Project came out and we all thought it would be interesting to see what the creators could do with some real resources behind them and then they showed us and we all gave a collective “Oh. Oh well.”?

That is also the story of everything Duncan Jones has done post-Moon.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 6:14 AM on July 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

Hopefully Jones has learned some valuable lessons from directing the World of Warcraft Movie.

To be perfectly honest, I hope he learned a bigger lesson from Mute. Warcraft failed because Jones was attempting to shoehorn a bunch of faux-Tolkien flavor text from an MMO into a coherent film. Whereas Mute was a mess that was entirely his own design, somehow both overly complicated and strangely thin. There's a reason it got dumped onto Netflix with basically zero fanfare a few months ago.

I really want the Jones who made Moon and Source Code to resurface, and I'm hoping this one does the trick.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:21 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Mute looked great but never a good idea to make a film with no redeeming characters. I thought the woodcarving, old phone using, not having the ability to speak fixed by choice, religious fanatic was quite a tedious protagonist. And making Paul Rudd(!) a jerk is tricky thing to do but he somehow pulled it off.
posted by Damienmce at 7:30 AM on July 16, 2018

That is also the story of everything Duncan Jones has done post-Moon.

I liked Source Code a lot.

Warcraft... it is what it is. Not sure it problems come from Jones so much as being a thing that should not be.

Mute I'm a bit afraid to watch, I think I'll just skip over that one and hope for the best from this.
posted by Artw at 9:10 AM on July 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

COME ON SHAKO NEXT.
posted by maxsparber at 9:49 AM on July 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Warcraft failed in the West (it was a huge hit in China) because it was based on World of Warcraft, a MMO with limited story possibilities and at best a limited audience. You can't blame its failure to connect on Duncan Jones.

Mute is quite poor but I think the issue with it is the screenplay. It is a mess but apparently it predates Moon so perhaps the issue is that needed some tightening.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:56 AM on July 16, 2018

Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein, but set in the Star Wars universe.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:11 AM on July 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

I quite enjoyed Warcraft, although I watched with very low expectations... it was obvious from commentary/interviews that Jones was really into the lore... for good or ill. That makes me hope that Rogue will be more Dredd than Judge Dredd.

But yeah Mute... was not good.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:26 AM on July 16, 2018

There's a reason it got dumped onto Netflix with basically zero fanfare a few months ago.

While Jones had a bit of a problem for a number of years getting Mute made, Netflix greenlit the final production and made it possible. It wasn't "dumped" on Netflix, they wrote the check that made it happen.
posted by sideshow at 11:26 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I liked Mute a lot, I guess I should feel wrong or something but it's at least as good as Source Code in my view.

Warcraft wasn't for me, couldn't watch more than 15 minutes of that.
posted by Kosmob0t at 11:39 AM on July 16, 2018

2000AD announcement with some quotes form the Kingsleys

Rouge Trooper one-shot special ed comic (pdf)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:46 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

While Jones had a bit of a problem for a number of years getting Mute made, Netflix greenlit the final production and made it possible. It wasn't "dumped" on Netflix, they wrote the check that made it happen.

OK, I shorthanded the circumstances around its release, but I'd still argue that aside from a handful of Netflix originals like Bright (bleah) or Okja that get actual marketing (TV commercials, billboards, etc.) behind them, the vast majority are just kind of silently dropped onto the service and may or may not rise to the top of somebody's recommendations depending on what N's algorithm thinks it knows about them. The only way I even knew Mute (or I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore, or Mudbound) was even released was by virtue of being an avid consumer of film blogs and podcasts. And as much as I didn't care for his last couple of films, I feel a director like Jones deserves a more visible venue for his work.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:14 PM on July 16, 2018

Though I've not seen Mute, it has struck me with a number of Netflix-made movies that they're missing a couple of rewrite stages, as if there's a part of the editorial process that most movies have that Netflix don't realise is necessary. Even Okja, to a certain extent, though that's my favourite of them so far. From working in publishing - albeit in the art department's engine room, so it's not something I have direct experience of - I know that most of the most important bits an editor does is asking the author difficult questions about what they've written and pointing out things that don't make sense. That's where a text goes from something diverting to something that really works and is sort of what's missing in a number of the Netflix movies, so they stay entertaining at best when they promised much more.
posted by Grangousier at 4:48 PM on July 16, 2018 [3 favorites]