With all eyes on the incoming Judge Dredd movie, it makes sense that savvy producers would be looking to legendary British comic 2000AD for further inspiration. Hence the news this morning that a Rogue Trooper film is in development at Sam Worthington's production company, and that cult comics writer Grant Morrison (Arkham Asylum, Final Crisis, Superman) is at work on the screenplay.
Rogue Trooper, as British comics readers of a certain age will know, is a blue-skinned "Genetic Infantryman" on a scorched Nu-Earth where North and South are perpetually at war. G.I.s' personalities can be saved onto "biochips" and uploaded into new bodies, and through various quirks of circumstance, Rogue's former brothers-in-arms Gunnar, Bagman and Helm currently reside in (natch) his gun, his backpack and his helmet, functioning both as his companions and critics. The strip was created by Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) and Gerry Finley-Day, and first appeared in 2000AD in 1981.
Morrison never wrote for the strip, but did provide copious Future Shocks, Zenith, and a handful of Dredds, so has plenty of 2000AD heritage. The news of a film and of Worthington and Morrison's involvement is buried in a Daily Record story that mostly concentrates on Dinosaurs vs Aliens**, the property that Morrison is currently working on with Barry Sonnenfeld. It's an aside so sketchy that it doesn't even come with a Morrison quote to back it up, so whether Worthington is developing the film with a view to personally slapping on the blue paint remains to be seen. We'll bring you further details as they emerge.
In the meantime, let us know what other 2000AD strips you'd like to see hit the screen. Who's for Strontium Dog? Halo Jones? Slaine? Shako the Polar Bear?