Guy Ritchie has flirted with many a comic book adaptation over the years — Lobo, Sgt. Rock, The Gamekeeper. But he’s never gotten to stick to one thanks to commitments and the winds of studio change.
You may remember Sgt. Rock being a fairly painful victim to those winds. The Sgt. Rock movie not only lost Ritchie, but it also lost its WWII setting. Rock was no longer the grizzled veteran we knew, loved, and looked up to, but a post-apocalyptic soldier being helmed by Francis Lawrence.
But now, undoubtedly spurred by the promising buzz of Captain America, Sgt. Rock is undergoing another makeover. According to TwitchFilm, Ritchie is back on the project, and supervising the latest screenplay which returns Rock to his original 1940s battlefields. (I can hear a Warner Bros executive now: “Goddammit! Green Lantern didn’t work! Do we have a Captain America?!”)
Considering the rocky and painful path DC Comics are taking to the big screen, I wouldn’t hold my breath for this one, or even Ritchie staying involved. But it’s nice to know that someone at Warner Bros realized what was so captivating about the character. Maybe there’s hope some of these lower tier characters there after all. (Don’t burst my bubble, I can dream of a good Jonah Hex movie, can’t I?)