Duncan Jones' "Rogue Trooper" Movie

[Rich Watson]

I'd assumed this has fallen into the same black hole that the "Judge Dredd" TV series fell into but it's actually been shot already.

However, if I'm understanding this article correctly it's basically a motion captured full-length CGI cutscene from a video game (just without the video game.) So my expectations are suitably lowered.

Good cast though: Aneurin Barnard, Haley Atwell, Reece Shearsmith, Jemaine Clement, Matt Berry, Diane Morgan, Alice Lowe, Asa Butterfield and Sean Bean.

https://variety.com/2024/film/globa...lowden-duncan-jones-rogue-trooper-1235889907/

 

[Starkers]

Naughty Norty

I too had kinda figured this would be trapped in development limbo forever so this is great news.

I am a little disappointed it isn't live action but I'll take an animated Rogue Trooper film over no Rogue Trooper film any day, and year great cast.

 

[JD]

Not familiar with the source material, but I am curious about this since I really enjoyed Moon and that is a fantastic cast.

 

[Starkers]

Some more detail about who Rogue is. Link

For me what will make or break this is the interplay between Rogue and his buddies (The consciousnesses of his dead comrades on are biochips inserted in his helmet, backpack and gun) so I'm glad they've cast different actors for each (Reece Shearsmith is Bagman apparently!) Technically it makes no sense because they're clones so their voices should be almost identical (even if you factor in the harmonics of the individual equipment might make them sound slightly different) but that wouldn't work. Their squabbling/banter/friendship is one of the things that elevates Rogue above just another future war story.

I wonder if the film will start with the Quartz Massacre and the search for the traitor general? That would make most sense.

 

[OtherGene]

I can't believe we're finally getting Rogue Trooper and it's going to be a glorified cartoon. What a wasted opportunity. And I genuinely thought Jonesy was the man to produce a live action Rogue Trooper and do it properly as he clearly knows the source material as well as, well the rest of us do.

Not interested now, sorry.

 

[Christopher]

Technically it makes no sense because they're clones so their voices should be almost identical (even if you factor in the harmonics of the individual equipment might make them sound slightly different) but that wouldn't work.

Counterpoint: Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Dee Bradley Baker plays all the clones but makes each of them unique.

I can't believe we're finally getting Rogue Trooper and it's going to be a glorified cartoon. What a wasted opportunity.

What's wrong with cartoons? There's plenty of animation out there that's smarter and better than most live-action.

 

[Starkers]

I can't believe we're finally getting Rogue Trooper and it's going to be a glorified cartoon. What a wasted opportunity. And I genuinely thought Jonesy was the man to produce a live action Rogue Trooper and do it properly as he clearly knows the source material as well as, well the rest of us do.

Not interested now, sorry.

I'm disappointed that it isn't going to be live action, but I'm still excited by the project and hopeful that it'll be great.

Counterpoint: Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Dee Bradley Baker plays all the clones but makes each of them unique.

It's clearly possible for one person to do multiple distinct voices, but there is a difference between clones, who as far as I can tell all look different from one another with or without their helmets, and a situation where you can usually tell who is the focus of any dialogue, and the situation with Rogue whereby you have a man whose gun, helmet and backpack are all talking, and it might not always be clear which one is speaking. There are absolutely voice actors who could pull it off, but it is going to be much easier to differentiate when they have very different voices IMO.

I do wonder (assuming we see the quartz Massacre) whether we'll see Gunnar, Bagman and Helm as clones, and if so whether they'll have their distinct voices already, or whether it'll be implied it's a side effect of the biochip process?

 

[Christopher]

and the situation with Rogue whereby you have a man whose gun, helmet and backpack are all talking, and it might not always be clear which one is speaking.

I'm a little confused -- so you're saying the characters were clones of each other while they were alive? The link above mentions "Genetic Infantrymen," which does sound a lot like Star Wars Clone Troopers.

Which might, in itself, be a reason they've cast different actors. Maybe keeping them as identical clones would've been seen as too similar to SW, so they've changed the concept both to avoid that and to make the voices easier to distinguish.

 

[Starkers]

I'm a little confused -- so you're saying the characters were clones of each other while they were alive? The link above mentions "Genetic Infantrymen," which does sound a lot like Star Wars Clone Troopers.

Which might, in itself, be a reason they've cast different actors. Maybe keeping them as identical clones would've been seen as too similar to SW, so they've changed the concept both to avoid that and to make the voices easier to distinguish.

Yes the GI's are clones so they all look alike. They fight on a planet called Nu Earth which is heavily polluted by decades of war so all soldiers have to wear masks. The GIs were created to be able to breathe the atmosphere.

No spoiler but the other three die pretty quickly during their first battle (always assuming they don't start the film In medias res which the comic did.)

There have been a couple of occasions when the four have been together and all in bodies. One was a flashback which worked well because the younger versions were wearing singlets that identified who they were (Think they had a letter on them, R, G, H, B). The other was much later when they'd been re cloned and weirdly had each of them with their bit of equipment (ie Helm was wearing his helmet) which I appreciate was just shorthand but was also very silly.

 

[valkyrie013]

Why all the poo poo on animated stuff? Its just a medium, and a great one, I would rather see ALOT of stuff animated rather than live action since you can do MORE stuff in it.

 

[JD]

I can't believe we're finally getting Rogue Trooper and it's going to be a glorified cartoon. What a wasted opportunity. And I genuinely thought Jonesy was the man to produce a live action Rogue Trooper and do it properly as he clearly knows the source material as well as, well the rest of us do.

Not interested now, sorry.

What's so horrible about it being animated? There are plenty of great animated movies and shows out there, that can stand up against even the best live action productions.

 

[Christopher]

What's so horrible about it being animated? There are plenty of great animated movies and shows out there, that can stand up against even the best live action productions.

Absolutely.

Not only that, though, but I find it confusing how someone can be a fan of a comic strip yet lose interest in an animated adaptation thereof. Aren't they both cartoons?

 

[OtherGene]

I'm not dissing anybody's taste, and there's plenty of hugely successful animated movies, Toy Story, Frozen, the list goes on. On a less flippant note I'm very aware the Spiderman/Miles Morales films made many millions of dollars, I watched it and it was....fine.

But, what can I say, I wanted to see Rogue in the blue flesh. I believe it's a great story that resonates today as much is it did in the early 1980s. And I think, as it's animated, it's going to disappear shortly after release, because most of it's audience will be existing fans. Whereas a live-action movie hitting the multiplexes/streaming platforms, done properly, could've put the character and story right into the public eye and from there the skies the limit, sequels, crossovers, who knows?

But I'll be very happy if I'm wrong. Time will tell.

 

[Captaindemotion]

A live-action movie would probably have interested me more than animated but Jones is a huge talent and I think this is his first animated movie, so it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to that medium. Plus this cast makes it a must-see (or is it a must-hear?).

 

[Starkers]

A live-action movie would probably have interested me more than animated but Jones is a huge talent and I think this is his first animated movie, so it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to that medium. Plus this cast makes it a must-see (or is it a must-hear?).

Plus by the sound of it the film has an indie level budget which presumably means its break even point will be way lower than the average blockbuster. I guess the issues were how expensive a live action film would have been, and realistically how many people would have gone to see a sci-fi war movie.

 

[Skipper]

Plus by the sound of it the film has an indie level budget which presumably means its break even point will be way lower than the average blockbuster. I guess the issues were how expensive a live action film would have been, and realistically how many people would have gone to see a sci-fi war movie.

To make it faithful to the comic book settings they would have needed an Avatar level budget.

 

[Rich Watson]

The company doing the animation have a YouTube channel where you can see some of their other work. (Search for 'Treehouse Digital' .)

It's not great.

 

[Starkers]

To make it faithful to the comic book settings they would have needed an Avatar level budget.

I did wonder whether the nature of Nu Earth could help. Lot's of swirling chem clouds to mask a lot of cheap CGI.

It is interesting that you mention Avatar because one of the things I always said about the first one is that the final battle felt like the closest I'd ever seen to a Rogue Trooper film, in part because the human aircraft looked a lot like atmo-craft from the comics, but also because obviously the Na'vi are blue!

 

[Christopher]

Plus by the sound of it the film has an indie level budget which presumably means its break even point will be way lower than the average blockbuster. I guess the issues were how expensive a live action film would have been, and realistically how many people would have gone to see a sci-fi war movie.

Zack Stentz said on Twitter that " if he pulls this off, doing it in Unreal Engine opens up the possibility of making cool, epic genre films and TV for a fraction of the current cost." Which reminds me of the revolution that the Video Toaster and Foundation Imaging achieved in SFTV with Babylon 5 and after, allowing elaborate CGI effects shots to be created far more inexpensively than ever before and allowing SF/fantasy shows to proliferate on TV like they'd never been able to before.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I haven't read the comic, but I've heard that Rogue Trooper gets betrayed by every woman he encounters. That's going to appeal to a certain demographic, I expect. If that theme is continued into this adaptation, it's going to attract a lot of criticism. I've read about the basic premise of the character and I doubt it's for me because of the violence. Judge Dredd eventually comes to realise that he's a product and tool of his society. I don't know if Rogue Trooper has a similar character arc, but is this just a thematic repetition when one boils it down to its essence?