I was thrilled to hear that DC Comics’ Sgt. Rock was being made in a feature film – especially given the success of WWII movies and shows like Inglorious Basterds, Band of Brothers and Flags of Our Fathers. The Sgt. Rock comics followed U.S. Army Sgt. Rock and his “Easy Company” squad of misfits throughout WWII with their missions primarily taking place in the European Theatre. Made famous by artistic legend, Joe Kubert, Sgt. Rock was a continual thorn in the side of the Nazis and even took time to make the readers care when a member of Easy died. Producer Joel Silver currently owns the film rights to the property and is currently developing a Sgt. Rock movie that takes place in the near future. While talking to HeroComplex, Silver confirmed that while the story wouldn’t take place in Iraq or another current warzone, that it would be set “in the near future” and not use any of the WWII origins for the character. Maybe he thinks that coming out with a period piece so close in tone to Basterds would be a bad thing… but I think he’s wrong. Sgt. Rock has always taken place in WWII. It’s a soldier’s look at war in WWII with a comic book feel. Thankfully, Silver’s version of Sgt. Rock hasn’t been greenlit yet and I’m hoping that Warner Bros. still gets a final say in the movie before another G.I. Joe happens. Much like the mistakes made by Joel Schumacher and Sam Raimi, Silver seems to be set on making Sgt. Rock into HIS story and putting HIS mark on the property rather than simply telling existing stories that defined the character. Forty year of continuity must just be too much for some people in Hollywood to deal with. I can name three story arcs that a Sgt. Rock movie could be based on and reading then would only take an average reader maybe a day to read. News like this makes me happy that Disney bought Marvel… with Warner Bros on edge and taking a greater interest in their comic properties, maybe Joel Silver’s Sgt. Rock will die on the drawing board…
What do you think? Should studios stick to the original Sgt. Rock story or is the Joel Silver idea worth pursuing?
