Promotional art for the 1997 movie Starship Troopers.Columbia Pictures has tapped District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to write and direct a new Starship Troopers film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, giving the franchise its first live-action entry since 2008s Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.The movie will be based on Robert A. Heinleins 1959 book of the same name, not a remake of or sequel to 1997s Paul Verhoeven-directed Starship Troopers, say the outlets unnamed sources. In that movie, characters played by Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, and Michael Ironside are part of a comically jingoist militaristic society at war with space bugs. Blomkamps wife, Terri Tatchell, will reportedly co-produce the new Troopers movie. The outlet does not say when its expected to debut.Heinleins book has been criticized for celebrating military fascism criticism that extended to Verhoevens movie when it was released, as The Hollywood Reporter notes. These days, its generally accepted that his movie was meant as a send-up of the book. In a Kennedy Center interview, Verhoeven said hed hoped to show those who applaud the kind of over-the-top jingoism it presents that what you have been admiring might be evil. Blomkamp has unsuccessfully tried to make movies in other sci-fi franchises, including a sequel to the Verhoeven-directed RoboCop called RoboCop Returns. Hed also planned a new Alien franchise film, but that was put on hold in favor of Ridley Scotts Prometheus follow-up, Alien: Covenant. Most recently, he directed Gran Turismo.