Duncan Jones' Rogue Trooper movie is very alive, cast announced
And principal photography on the 2000 AD adaptation has already been completed, apparently
The long-in-the-works Rogue Trooper movie adaptation from director Duncan Jones (Warcraft) has completed principal photography and unveiled its impressive cast.
Variety has the exclusive, which is actually packed with new information on the highly secretive production. In fact, the article kicks things off by saying the movie is actually animated (there was some confusion about its true nature since the original, shy 2018 announcement) and has been made with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5. Then, it also lets readers know the movie has "wrapped principal photography at Rebellion Film Studios in the U.K."
The movie is an adaptation of the 2000 AD sci-fi strip created by Gerry Finley-Day and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, which was recently revived in a serial written by Garth Ennis. Rogue Trooper follows the adventures of a 'Genetic Infantryman' named Rogue, the sole survivor of a massacre that wiped out his fellow soldiers during a future war on a planet called Nu-Earth. Along with three 'bio-chips' that are mounted on his equipment - each of which holds the mind of one of his fallen comrades - his mission is to search for the Traitor General who betrayed the cause and helped the enemy plan the massacre... but of course, things become more complicated. The IP was adapted into a video game in the 2000s by Rebellion, who also released a remaster in 2017 titled Rogue Trooper Redux.
The cast (which may or may not share faces with their animated counterparts) is also surprisingly star-studded and includes names such as Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk) "as the eponymous Rogue Trooper," Hayley Atwell (Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning), Jack Lowden (Slow Horses), Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters), and Reece Shearsmith (Saltburn). Additional big names also in the cast are Jemaine Clement (Avatar: The Way of Water), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth), Alice Lowe (Black Mirror), Asa Butterfield (Sex Education), and Sean Bean (Game of Thrones). As you can see, the powers that be have spared no expense.
About the intriguing use of UE5 on the movie, producer Stuart Fenegan commented: "The advancements in Unreal Engine 5 and the inclusion of MetaHuman rigs mean that it is now possible to achieve a very high standard of animation within an indie budget. Working with our amazing partners at Rebellion, Epic and Treehouse Digital we are pioneering and developing a new creative pipeline that will enable independent production of CG animated films." A first look at the movie's art was also shared, and you can view it below:
Variety's piece also says the animated feature is set to be finished next year, but all the distribution plans remain unclear, so this could either be a streaming or theatrical release, and we're expecting that matter to be resolved in the coming months.
Taking advantage of renewed interest in the character as the movie's release draws closer, Rebellion will be releasing Essential Rogue Trooper: Genetic Infantryman, a collected edition of the character's earliest comic strip adventures, in March.
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