"Sgt. Rock" Ditches WWII For The Future

By our guest blogger, Matt Jussim

Producer Joel Silver tells The Los Angeles Times that the long-gestating comic book adaptation "Sgt. Rock" has moved into a higher gear.

According to the LA Times: Sgt Rock Producer Joel Silver says the long-discussed Hollywood adaptation of the "Sgt. Rock" combat comic books has new life -- but the leader of Easy Company won't be fighting the good fight in 1940s Europe this time around.

Silver said the plan now is for the old warhorse of DC Comics to serve his country in the not-too-distant future. Part of the reason it seems is that Silver just received a new draft of the script this week and the story will not be set during World War II.

Said Silver: "It's a little bit in the future. 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."

In the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was prepared to play the G.I. hero, and John Milius and David Peoples had a script together that would have changed the soldier's heritage to explain the action star's Austrian accent.

That project petered out but Rock's name came up again as a film property, most notably when director Guy Ritchie was planning on directing a version set in World War II with Silver as producer and, it was rumored, Bruce Willis in the title role. That was the plan as recently as 2008. But now, with the new script in hand, things have changed.

Silver added: "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."

Although I think the WWII era is the perfect backdrop for any Hollywood project, it might serve this franchise better to move it into the future. With the character of “Sgt. Rock” recently celebrating a 50th anniversary, it might be time to update the look and feel for a new generation. With most of the youth out there a bit unfamiliar with the original character, this change may turn out to be for the better,

The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.