Lawrence, St. John Tackle "Sgt. Rock"

By our guest blogger, Matt Jussim

“I Am Legend” director Francis Lawrence is attached to direct, and Chad St. John (“The Days Before”) is set to pen the script for the film adaptation of the comic book series “Sgt. Rock” according to Heat Vision.  In the comics, which began in 1959, Sgt. Frank Rock was the leader of his infantry unit during the Second World War and fought in nearly every major engagement across North Africa, Italy and Northwest Europe.

The project has been in development hell with producer Joel Silver for nearly 20 years. The project has been through the hands of filmmakers Guy Ritchie, Brian Helgeland and John Milius over the years, all of whom have attempted to retain the WWII era-setting. Ritchie was most recently was attached to “Rock,” having worked on the script he was attached to direct.

The new version is expected to update the action to contemporary times, which will help keep the budget under control. Avika Goldsman also has come on to the project as another producer along with Silver.

The comic books were fairly successful for a number of years, but with many Middle East/Iraq war films not performing so great the past few years ("Lions For Lambs," "Body of Lies," "Rendition") the studio might be better suited to keep the story set in WWII.

Also, as with most comic book adaptations, once the setting or story gets changed and updated, things could easily go awry. What kind of film would “Watchmen” have been if it were set during the Persian Gulf War, as it almost was? As Quentin Tarantino proved earlier this year with the success of “Inglourious Basterds” a WWII era setting can be beneficial to the story of the film.

The project is scheduled for release in late 2011.