I’m not too familiar with the DC comics’ SGT. ROCK but it has been passion project for super producer Joel Silver for nearly 20 years and it will now finally see the light of day, for reals this time. According to Hollywood Reporter, Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) is set to direct, scribe Chad St. John will write the screenplay and Akiva Goldsman will help Silver in producing the project that will be housed at Warner Bros. But here’s the twist, they’re going to change the setting from WWII into the future…
SGT. ROCK is an infantry non-commissioned officer during World War II in the DC Comics Universe. His other name is Frank Rock, the character first appeared in Our Army at War #83 (June1959), and was created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. Some of Rock’s abilities include shooting down several German fighter planes with a single submachine gun, throwing hand grenades with amazing accuracy, highly skilled in street fighting mixed with boxing, possessing superhuman endurance and strength. He’s like the perfect soldier. You can read the rest of his fictional profile over at Wiki.
All these years, Silver wanted to keep SGT. ROCK in a WWII setting with the intention of paying homage to The Dirty Dozen. A bunch of scribes have come and gone and tried to tackle the adaptation. At one point, Arnold Schwarzengger was attached to star. Even Guy Ritchie almost had a shot at SGT. ROCK before he decided to settle for a PG-13 adaptation of LOBO.
But now the time period for SGT. ROCK has been moved to the future, who knows, he might be fighting the machines..
The studio thinks this is a wise move because..
1. Period war movies have not been in vogue in Hollywood for years
2. American super-patriotism went out of style after 9/11
3. G.I. JOE: RISE OF COBRA dropped ‘A Real American Hero’ tagline and made itself internationally focused and it worked fine.
Do you agree with those opinions?
