The battle is over even before it even began for World War II soldier Sgt. Rock.
Sgt. Rock, DC Studios’ action war movie based that was to shoot this summer, will no longer move forward, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
The feature project, with Luca Guadagnino in the director’s chair, had Colin Farrell as the titular DC Comics hero and was in preproduction as it planned a shoot in England.
It was also in the throes of casting, trying to line up actors who would play the men of Easy Company, the combat unit fighting Nazi forces in Europe. Sources say Mike Faist, who starred in Guadagnino’s Challengers, was lined up for a role. The role of a female French Resistance fighter had also been set, per sources.
It is unclear why the project has been shut down, although an insider said it came down to the project’s scheduling needs of shooting outdoors. The insider said that the project was not going away, and would be reassessed at the end of the year for a possible summer shoot in 2026. Another source raised the possibility that Guadagnino remained untested in the realm of action movies, and even though the budget was in the $70 million range, a paltry sum for comic book movies, higher ups may have wavered in their confidence.
DC toppers James Gunn and Peter Safran had been high on Rock, which was not initially on the list of projects for the first chapter of their slate. But the duo said they made room for it due to the strength of the script by Justin Kuritzkes, who penned Guadagnino’s Challengers and Queer.
Although it has a World War II setting, the story is said to involve Rock teaming with up with the female French Resistance fighter (is there any other kind?) to find the mystical Spear of Destiny, the spear used to stab Jesus Christ during his crucifixion, which in lore is said to have supernatural properties. They race to obtain it before the Nazis get their hands on it.
Created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, Sgt. Rock first appeared in comics in 1959. His comic was one of DC’s longest-running books. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis previously circled the role during Hollywood’s multi-decade history of trying to bring the character to the big screen, which now will have to wait even longer for his time in the spotlight.
