First look at Rogue Troopers: Duncan Jones reveals his handmade dystopian war machine from the 2000 AD comics

Exclusive: The problem with animation is that it’s all you need length. In fact, Liberty Films announced the completion of the new film in December 2023, and at the time of this interview earlier this month, it was still in production with some additions. very Last addition. “There were a few people who said, ‘Oh, I thought we had given up,'” says producer Stuart Fennegan. “But we haven’t given up on it. It just takes time to find new ways to make CG movies.”

This movie is month Director Duncan Jones talks about what he’s been up to since his 2018 film mutean underrated sci-fi set in the eerie basements of near-future Berlin. It may not seem like it, but his bright, colorful and original new work finds him returning to his low-budget indie roots. of the title rogue trooperThe film is based on a series of long-running British comics, 2000 AD, which Jones describes as “essentially a British Marvel/DC.”

like many people 2000 ADstrip of, rogue trooper This involves very high conceptual assumptions. That is, in the future, a soldier’s military skills and personality could be transferred to a microchip, which could then be downloaded into a new host, human or otherwise. Thus, Number 19, aka Rogue Trooper (Aneurin Bernard), is captured behind enemy lines with a very strange platoon. Bagman (Reece Shearsmith), his backpack. and Helm’s (Darryl McCormack) helmet. Comedy icon Ade Edmondson also makes a cameo appearance as Boots.

That real-world wars were far from Jones’ mind when this film began shows how long this film has been in the planning. “This is a much more traditional way of war than what’s actually happening today,” he says. Here, Jones and Fennegan discuss the film’s long and strange journey to the screen.

DEADLINE: When did you first discover it? 2000 AD?

Duncan Jones: I used to travel a lot when I was a child, and I would often see them wherever there was a magazine store. 2000 ADit would be in a small English department. herald tribune And other newspapers. They have 2000 AD and sometimes eagle A little cartoon for children. So, that’s when I started getting interested in it and really loved it. I’ve been a fan ever since.

they had some [flagship] character. Judge Dredd The most well-known player is the one who hit a few shots at bat. In the latest version, dreads [2012]It’s been a long time since I last worked with Karl Urban. I thought it was really fun. But since then, I think they’ve become very cautious about how they proceed with making further films based on their IP. And Stuart and I have been pestering them for a very long time. And we convinced them that together we could create something that they were really happy with.

DEADLINE: What was it? rogue trooper Is that what made you want to do it?

Jones: They have an absolute treasure trove of characters, and there are a lot of characters that I would love to play and would love to play. but rogue That was always what appealed to me the most. Interestingly, when I was a student, I was a big fan of Plato. republic The soul is divided into three parts: the head, the stomach, and the heart. and I’m always reading rogue trooper Along with the characters Bugman, Gunnar To, and Helm, we are thinking about the splitting of their souls. And when we started making the film, I finally had the opportunity to talk to the authors and ask them if that was in their ideas. Obviously that wasn’t the case. [Laughs.] That was not the case at all! But it meant something to me.

DEADLINE: As explained at the beginning, this premise is very difficult to understand. But in the end they become a platoon.

Jones: It just feels natural. It feels like a group of guys, a group of brothers.

DEADLINE: Stuart, what did you think?

Stuart Fennegan: I came to 2000 AD and rogue trooper Through Duncan. When we started working together, Duncan expressed his excitement: rogue And at that point I started reading comics. I remember him telling me a story about going straight to Jason Kingsley and Chris Kingsley when he was in film school. [at Rebellion Developments]A person who just bought 2000 AD When I created a catalog in 2000, I thought, “I really want to make one.” rogue trooper”And they were like, “Yeah, okay, let’s make some movies first.”

But as Duncan said, it’s really a British version of those comic book worlds, and an opportunity to create something that felt British. guardians of the galaxy It felt really cool. What was really interesting to me was that Duncan had written this great adaptation and screenplay at the beginning of this process. And to start our process, he recorded every character, every line, and put it all together as a two-hour radio play.

Jones: in a stupid voice.

Fennegan: I can’t wait for it to be released on DVD or Blu-ray as a bonus. You’ll see Duncan’s talent as a voice actor. But it really gave us the opportunity to reinvigorate what the project was about, and then we started working on creating a soundtrack animatic that would really show everyone what we wanted to do.

DEADLINE: How did you come up with the look for this movie? It’s very unique.

Jones: Yes, it’s truly organic. A truly organic look created through an iterative process. We started with a storyboard and a small video of myself and my editor, Barrett Heathcote, running around the garden recreating the pieces, then stitching everything together to edit the film and create the animatic in Unreal Engine, which we used as part of the process. But we didn’t know where we were going. We ended up having a wonderful artist, Stephen Trumbull, who we actually requested, be our production designer, and he gave us all this great concept artwork as we worked on it. And we just kept chipping away at it and making changes along the way until we found something that worked holistically for the whole movie.

Fennegan: Captured part of it 2000 AD Because the atmosphere and the aesthetic, it’s just its own thing.

Jones: That has always been the North Star. If you’re going to make a comic book movie, it should feel like a comic book movie by the end of it. That’s what we were aiming for. There was such a wonderful one-off 2000 AD A book called war machine.

It contained beautiful artwork that looked like a watercolor painting. And in terms of the look of the movie, that’s what I’ve always wanted us to do, a way to make it feel like it was colored in watercolors.

Fennegan: The artist Duncan mentioned, Stephen Trumble, is part of a really great bespoke animation company called Treehouse in Bournemouth in the south of England. We then started working with them to put together animatics from Duncan’s radio playback audio files, and Steve was responsible for designing them. As you know, we started working with Unreal Engine to do the animatic, and one of the things that was really important to us was to make sure we found an animation style that didn’t invite similarities to video game movies. we really wanted to try it 2000 AD DNA.

We also had an amazing character designer there named Doriana Re, who was literally reading through comic books and drawing different pictures and sending them to Duncan, trying to find a look that was slightly stylized but not too satirical. We didn’t want to get into that uncanny valley aesthetic of video games. We really wanted to find a style for this theatrical animation. 2000 AD universe.

DEADLINE: How would you describe it? It’s described as animation, but is it strictly animation? Of course it’s not motion capture. Is there a technical term for this process?

Jones: no.

Fennegan: We will create it according to your request.

Jones: The process that allows us to make a film like this as a British independent film is exactly what we’ve devised. I think one of the things we learned early on was that straight motion capture just doesn’t work for the way we look. We have a character called GI, who is a blue soldier, and we try to distort them to make them feel as human as possible. And for the rest of the human cast, we really went for a grotesque look and pushed them into a more eccentric look to really balance out the more human GIs and everyone else who was actually human.

But when we handed raw motion capture to animators, it often looked like a video game, which was unappealing. So we ended up doing a lot of hand animation on these characters. We worked with an amazing stunt team to do the stunt work and do the motion capture for the fight scenes. But still, our team of artists stepped in and started manipulating things.

DEADLINE: Duncan, what is the concept of this dystopia? Is it heavily based on comic books or did you bring your own imagination to it?

Jones: Well, this is based on the episodic nature of the storytelling, and the fact that we’re visiting all of these different characters in different environments is very much in line with the comics. But I had a little fun with it and tried to add some things and take some of the original story and put my own spin on it. I can’t help but do it all the time. [Laughs.] I’m having trouble with this warcraft.

That was the approach to the story. Visually, it’s a mix of things while still maintaining the spirit of the comic book artwork. Then Steve Trumbull and I talked about thunderbird Or super large vehicles. As such, we had a lot of fun with these ridiculously huge vehicles, as the story takes place in a fairly confined environment. But I think the scale sells it with these giant vehicles and some fun action moments, especially the big tank at the beginning of the movie, which is a Bond-esque set piece at the beginning of the movie.

Fennegan: I would argue against that from a production standpoint. The world was absolutely huge. There are dozens of characters. I think we’ve cast every British comedian who’s ever worked on the planet.

Jones: sorry! So, I want to dive into that, but I really wanted to lean into the Britishness of its origins. about the fact that rogue trooper This song comes from 2000 AD and has a very strong punk political feel to it, and we wanted to cast it to as many people as possible from Europe in general, mainly from the UK. There are one or two Americans in it, but I wanted it to feel like a British independent film, so that’s how I approached it.

DEADLINE: Natural question, do you have any? rogue trooper universe?

Fennegan: Look, I think we’ve all come close to taking the plunge. rogue trooper As an animated film in a really new way. So I think we’re focused on releasing this, and of course if it’s successful, it’s going to be great to continue to play in that style within that world. As Duncan said, there are a lot of great characters in that world.

DEADLINE: Do you have a particular favorite, or is it too early to say?

Jones: There are many favorites. I think 2000 ADhas an amazing library of characters, and I think what’s great about them is that they don’t feel like they’re the same man and woman just in different uniforms, which is the case with some comic book movies. There are some really interesting and strange stories 2000 AD For those who want to play. Again, leaning towards Britishness, or at least Europeanness. 2000 ADI’d like to see more British filmmakers come on board and make it a bit of a renaissance of the kind of British cinema we haven’t had the chance to make before. the way we made it rogue trooper It really opens up the opportunity to do something on this scale on a UK indie budget. [Laughs.] Please join us. It’ll be fun.

Rogue Trooper is distributed by Stuart Fennegan of Liberty Films and CAA Media Finance