Duncan Jones’s ROGUE TROOPER had its World Premiere at Annecy International Animation Festival in France and was met with stellar reviews. Jones films include Moon, Source Code, Warcraft, and Mute.
Synopsis: An animated science fiction feature from Rebellion and Liberty Films, Rogue Trooper tells the story of 19, a ‘Genetic Infantryman’, who finds himself the sole-survivor of an invasion force. Desperate to track down the traitor who sold him and his comrades out, the super soldier is accompanied by three killed-in-action squad mates, whose personalities have been stored in his gun, helmet and backpack.
Based on the classic 2000 AD comic series created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons, Rogue Trooper has been written and directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft, Mute). It will star breakout talent Aneurin Barnard (The Goldfinch, Dunkirk) as the eponymous Rogue Trooper, alongside Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One), Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk), Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters, Good Luck To You Leo Grande) and Reece Shearsmith (Inside No. 9, Saltburn).
Rounding out the cast is an incredible ensemble, which includes Jemaine Clement (Avatar 2: The Way of Water), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth), Alice Lowe (Black Mirror), Asa Butterfield (Sex Education, Hugo) and Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings).
Deadline‘s Damon Wise says: “Jones lays some of this aesthetic in the opening credits, the best of the year alongside Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: While Bear McCreary’s tongue-in-cheek, faux-jingoistic theme “The Rogue Trooper March” plays, Jones uses black-and-white frames from the original comic-book, giving his director credit a well-earned speech bubble that says, quite simply, “BTHOOM”!” and the “‘2000AD’ Adaptation Is A Fast, Funny, Visually Mind-Blowing Old-School War Movie.”
Wendy Ide of Screen Daily says: “…there is much to admire in a picture which delivers plenty of space-ship crunching action and regional British insults but also manages to critique the cynical economic motivations of endless, pointless wars.”
“A hellzapoppin’ comic book adaptation,” says Drew Taylor at The Wrap, who praised the fact that the film was made independently and looks far better than that would normally suggest. “It’s an absolute hoot,” he writes. “An otherworldly war movie populated by anthropomorphic weapons, arcane mythology and the kind of go-for-broke 1980s fantasy movie spirit that is (sadly) in short supply these days.” While “gloriously overstuffed” and “packed with characters and bits of lore, technology and philosophizing” he says that “encyclopedic knowledge” of the source material “isn’t necessary to have a good time”.
When asked by Deadline in April what prompted the BAFTA Award Winning director/writer to make the film:
JONES: They’ve got an absolute treasure trove of characters, and there’s a lot of them that I would’ve been gagging to do and absolutely would love the chance to do. But Rogue was always the one that felt most appealing to me. It’s funny, when I was in school, I was a big fan of Plato’s Republic and the tripartite division of the soul between the head, the stomach, and the heart. And I always read Rogue Trooper thinking of that division of the soul, with the characters of Bagman, Gunnar and Helm. And when we started making the film, I finally had the opportunity to talk to the authors and ask them if that had been in their thinking. Obviously, it wasn’t. [Laughs.] It wasn’t at all! but it meant something to me.”
I think 2000 AD’s got an amazing library of characters, and I think what’s great about them is that they don’t feel like the same man and woman, just in a different uniform, which some comic movies tend to feel like. There’s some really interesting, bizarre stories that are in 2000 AD for those who want to have a play. Again, leaning into the Britishness or at least the Europeanness of 2000 AD, I would love to see more British filmmakers come on board and make this a bit of a renaissance for the kinds of British films that we haven’t really ever had the chance to make. The way that we made Rogue Trooper really does open up the opportunity to do some things at this scale on a UK indie budget. [Laughs.] Come and join us. It’ll be fun.”
For more on the film, check out the interview with Duncan Jones and Stuart Fenegan as they “Break Down the DNA of Their New Sci-Fi Movie, ‘Rogue Trooper’” HERE.
