New Rogue Trooper Film!!

[The Legendary Shark]

Doesn't need to be a single method of speaking if the chips can bluetwooth to Rogue's chip, equipment speakers and even external devices as and when required - they might even be able to hack into enemy suit speakers; an excellent way to sow confusion, fear and disinformation.

[Frank]

Maybe they're just nicknames Rogue gives them once he's rescued the chips.

I think that's what everyone assumed was the case^*. 

I swear I was typing something about audiences understanding the spatial relationships between Robert Downey Jr and Paul Bettany's disembodied voice without flashing LEDs at the same time TordlelBack posted his comment.

I'd still like the chips to pop up on screen at key emotional moments, so you could see the evil grin on Gunnar's skull when he's about to waste a platoon of unarmed Norts^**, but if the tone of the movie is fun & silly, how about the Inner Space model? Every time it cuts to the chips, we see the actors sitting in little cockpits, visual metaphors for their confinement, functions, and personalities.

Gunnar's cramped sniper's nest is full of sights and scopes, so we can actually see him pulling the trigger when he fires; Helm's cubicle is a mess of maps and radar screens; Bagman's entombed in a miniature Amazon warehouse. Like Blackmocco, I now understand why I have yet to helm a major motion picture.


* I know it isn't

** One of the great joys of my wee life was noticing that Steve Dillon drew the skulls with different expressions.

[Steve Green]

Surely the chips lighting up when they speak isn't the brightest idea if Rogue wants to remain concealed, particularly at night. It's going to be an interesting challenge to bring to life onscreen. There's some creative leeway to be taken here, for sure. No reason they have to be numbered 1, 2 and 3 (some coincidence out of all the dying GIs in proximity) either. And as much as the names Helm, Gunnar and Bagman are ingrained into our consciousnesses, it's also a little too on the nose for their functions. Maybe they're just nicknames Rogue gives them once he's rescued the chips.

(This is why no-one's giving me money to make movies...)

Iron Man's eyes don't need to light up, but they do.

Chips don't necessarily have to be illuminated, could be more like e-ink/kindle sort of deal.

The general public over here came up with Boaty McBoatface, so arguments about naming of chips not being realistic seem a little off.

[TordelBack]

Gunnar's cramped sniper's nest is full of sights and scopes, so we can actually see him pulling the trigger when he fires; Helm's cubicle is a mess of maps and radar screens; Bagman's entombed in a miniature Amazon warehouse.

Fuggit, let's just go full Numskulls.  I believe some folk in these parts have experience in that particular style of adaptation...?

[Steve Green]

Well, we've seen them in digital full body 'I have no junk but I must scream' © Spacespinner 2K in that episode where they're tronning their way through a computer system.

I kind of want to see something that loopy.

[Tiplodocus]

This or nothing.

"Yive or Yitterbug?"

"Both!"

[sheridan]

Well, we've seen them in digital full body 'I have no junk but I must scream' © Spacespinner 2K in that episode where they're tronning their way through a computer system.

I kind of want to see something that loopy.

Dr Manhattan, the Bowdlerised version ;-)

[sheridan]

Helm is a passive character relative to the others. See what else you can give him to do rather than just be a hat.

Given that one of Helm's most clearly-defined traits is his egotism, I agree it makes sense to give him more to do to make him feel like he's the most important chip. As it stands, he just has the best view.

Certainly a better view than biochip 4, in the thermal underwear slot.

[Jim_Campbell]

Duncan Jones is having a bit of a witter on Twitter about his love for Rogue Trooper (thread starts here for those interested.

He talks about the biochips as being an integral part of the story's USP, so it'd be quite surprising if we don't get to see them in some form...

[broodblik]

For me the Biochips is as much part of Rogue as Rogue himself.

[Greg M.]

When the man's tweeting panels from Cinnabar, you know this project is in good hands.

[TordelBack]

Yeah, that run of tweets is very heartening.  Cinnabar is precisely where you start if you're trying to make a less "Boys Comics" version of Rogue, while still retaining all the crazy elements that make the strip what it is, and War Machine is where you go to see how far you can push things before they lose that special identity. 

Incidentally, the only real problem with War Machine as a reboot for me (apart from the lack of biochips) is that by the end it's done and dusted, rather than being a setup for new stories, so that the subsequent Friday run is basically a second, inferior, reboot. But that one-shot storyline might be exactly what a film should be.

[JOE SOAP]

But that one-shot storyline might be exactly what a film should be.

I don't think Rogue, as an idea, lends itself too well to multiple films without some modification.

[Greg M.]

I think the basic structure of War Machine is a decent one to hang a film on. It just needs dressing up with some of the wilder and weirder aspects of the regular series. War Machine is well-written and artistically-stylish, but it's slightly dull.

[TordelBack]

So, War Machine, but with biochips, stammels, Fort Neuropa and Charybdis in the second act.  There, we're sorted.