Sgt. Rock — the long-running DC Comics World War II soldier — has been one comic book adaptation that has been in development hell for decades now. The infantry commander of Easy Company, which is always in the heat of battle against Nazis, had a screenplay penned by John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Conan the Barbarian 1982) for a possible Arnold Schwarzenegger film in the 1980s, and later in the 1990s was considered as a possible vehicle for Bruce Willis. Producer Joel Silver, who holds the rights to the project, attempted to start production with a John Cox script (Boot Camp) to be directed by Guy Ritchie a few years ago, but Ritchie dropped out of the project to make Sherlock Holmes, then a Holmes sequel. Last year Silver announced that he intended to go forward with the project without Ritchie and change the film’s setting to a war in the “near future,” which makes as much sense as setting Jonah Hex in the 1980s.
Thankfully that last idea seems to have been dropped, because Twitch Film is reporting that Warner Bros. is pushing Ritchie to focus on Sgt. Rock as his next project instead of Ritchie‘s planned remake of Excalibur (which has a screenplay penned by Red comic writer Warren Ellis). It seems like it’s very likely considering Twitch claims Ritchie is supervising a new draft of the script that will be set during World War II (and rightfully so!)
Sgt. Rock is the epitome of a badass dogface, the kind of soldier that would crawl through enemy gunfire if it meant helping the United States. His most memorable tales were penned by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert, the latter of whom is still periodically illustrating Sgt. Rock stories for DC Comics well into his eighties! Sgt. Rock would make an excellent film and could easily straddle the artistic gap between the dramatic Saving Private Ryan and cartoonish Inglourious Basterds. I’m sure the World War II-set Captain America serves some inspiration, too.
What’s your favorite Sgt. Rock story? Let us know in the comments below!
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