Duncan Jones Hints His Comic-Book Movie Is 2000 AD’s Rogue Trooper

When Duncan Jones mentioned a couple of days ago on Twitter that he was going to do a comic-book movie, most followers naturally assumed he meant Marvel or DC; certainly, he's the kind of director adept at both concepts and spectacle that would seem like a natural fit for both. And even though its box-office take was unimpressive, the heavily underrated Warcraft movie showed he could do some serious world-building on a large scale.

In a video posted to Twitter today, however, he makes it clear that he's more inclined towards the "Mega-verse," that future world from which Judge Dredd hails alongside all the other stories of the English comic 2000 AD. Aside from the two Dredd movies, this grim and satirical sci-fi scape remains a relatively untapped resource for films--perhaps because much of it is too cynical for Hollywood--though the 1990 cult film Hardware is also an adaptation.

The unique hairdo that he reveals is thought by most who've seen it to be a reference to Tor Cyan, a character spun off of Rogue Trooper, one of 2000 AD's signature characters. Before Watchmen's Dave Gibbons was drawing Dr. Manhattan, he was giving life to this blue-skinned muscleman, a genetically engineered soldier fighting a planetary civil war on a world where the atmosphere has long since become toxic. Mohawked Tor Cyan is a medical shuttle driver, who ultimately discovers he has a connection to the Rogue Troopers--something you'd think the blue skin would have given right away. Rogue Trooper is by far the better known title, so it seems most likely Jones would do a Rogue Trooper movie that Cyan happens to be a character in...though it's possible he could just leap straight into a Tor Cyan solo film. Until we know what the approximate budget is, it's hard to guess. Are you excited for Jones to take on a future war? Or are we way off base, with the hint meaning something else? Let us know what you think below.

Images: 2000 AD