BIG Rogue Trooper news was officially announced yesterday, 29th January 2024, as Rebellion + Liberty Films revealed via an exclusive for Variety that Principal Photography had wrapped on Duncan Jones’ adaptation of 2000AD‘s most popular genetically-engineered infantryman. Not only that, casting details were also revealed along with how Duncan and his cast and crew are bringing his unique take on Rogue Trooper to the big screen.
Cast
Shot at Rebellion Film Studios in Oxfordshire, breakout talent Aneurin Barnard (The Goldfinch,
Dunkirk) stars 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). A few as yet unannounced to add that are equally exciting…
Later in the day Duncan shared some additional casting news revealing who would be playing Rogue Trooper’s constant companions; Helm, Gunnar, and Bagman. Killed at the Quartz Zone Massacre (check this excellent quick explainer over on IGN) but saved when Rogue removed his dead comrades’ biochips and placed them into slots in his equipment.
“For the Rogue Trooper curious, I’ll spill a bean- As you know the wonderful Aneurin Barnard is Rogue. But what you DIDN’T know, is that handsome Jack Lowden is GUNNAR, dreamy Daryl McCormack is HELM and the irrepressible Reece Shearsmith is Bagman. You’re gonna have a blast!”
Duncan Jones – Twitter 29-01-2024
Creating Rogue Trooper
In yesterdays announcement Duncan Jones said: “2000 AD offers a very different flavour of comic action: Political and brutal at times, but always with a Pythonesque twinkle in the eye. Dredd (2012) was a taste of what 2000 AD has to offer and now we get to show the world another side of the beast. It is a genuine privilege to be given the opportunity to make Rogue Trooper.“
Treehouse Digital (The Well) is creating all imagery and animation for the film, working with Duncan to bring to life the world of Rogue Trooper from concept art to final pixel in Unreal Engine 5.
Producer Stuart Fenegan commented: “The advancements in Unreal Engine 5 and the inclusion of MetaHuman rigs mean that it is now possible to achieve a very high standard of animation within an indie budget. Working with our amazing partners at Rebellion, Epic and Treehouse Digital we are pioneering and developing a new creative pipeline that will enable independent production of CG
animated films.“
Unreal Engine from Epic is a development platform that enables creators across numerous industries to realise real-time 3D content and experiences. For an idea of what can be achieved check out this stunning Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga – Official Unreal Engine 5 Metahuman Demo.
So as you can see, Rogue Trooper is a highly ambitious animated feature using the very latest cutting edge technologies. But as Aneurin Barnard posted on Twitter earlier today “Its not just our voices …” which was qualified further by Duncan when asked for the benefit of a Jack Lowden fan…
“Well… not sure I should speak for Aneurin, but I think he wants to make it clear that the Rogue Trooper movie, though animated, uses a combination of mocap, face cap and a few other hybrid technologies to capture performance far beyond “just voice.” “
Duncan Jones – Twitter 29-01-2024
Rebellion CEO, Jason Kingsley CBE, who is a Producer on Rogue Trooper, added to the announcement yesterday to say: “We are thrilled to be working with Duncan Jones, who is a fellow British creative visionary and 2000 AD fan with global reach. Rogue Trooper highlights Rebellion’s leading position within the entertainment industries. It has been filmed at our dedicated Oxfordshire film studios and combines beautiful storytelling from our iconic 2000 AD comic book universe with animation and production technology from the video game industry. We cannot wait for everyone to see these incredible stories bought to life on screen.”
Release
No doubt, if you’re anything like me and the hundreds, thousands, MILLIONS of people reacting in an overwhelmingly positive way to the news yesterday, you’ll be wanting to know WHEN you will be able to insert this massively ambitious and exciting concoction into your ocular sensory receptor organs. And the old earholes too cus we suspect there’s gonna be a lot of BOOM in this one! So mark your calendars now ready for… 2025!
There’s a LOT of work left to do now principal photography has wrapped, I’d anticipate having to spin up well over 10 Commodore 64s AT LEAST to handle to complex processing involved in wrangling something as big as this.
Updates
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The Rogue Trooper comic was created by legendary artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Kingsman) and writer Gerry Finley-Day (Dan Dare) and released by British publishers 2000 AD, home to Judge Dredd, Halo Jones and Sláine.
Rogue Trooper is produced by Stuart Fenegan (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft, Mute) alongside Jason Kingsley (Dredd, School’s Out Forever), Chris Kingsley (Dredd, School’s Out Forever) and Duncan Jones. The film is set to complete in 2025.
For the latest news and updates, please visit roguetrooper.com.
