That Luca Guadagnino is making a DC Comics movie at all is still something of a shock, but then Sgt. Rock hit a huge roadblock when star Daniel Craig dropped out, possibly in response to the reaction to his last movie with the director, Queer. Whatever the reason, the search was on for another A-list star to take Craig’s spot, and that search has reportedly ended quite close to home for Warner Bros.
THR reports Colin Farrell is in talks to star in Sgt. Rock, teaming up with Guadagnino for the first time. Farrell is no stranger to WB, having starred in Fantastic Beasts and Matt Reeves’ The Batman and its spinoff, The Penguin.
Sgt. Rock isn’t a superhero, nor does he have any powers. He is a WWII U.S. Army soldier, a crack shot with a gun, and a leader in Easy Company. He first appeared in Joe Kubert and Robert Kanigher’s Our Army at War comic in 1959. This being comic books, Sgt. Frank Rock managed to survive the fighting and find action in modern times alongside heroes including Batman, Superman, the Suicide Squad, and the Creature Commandos. Gee, who REALLY likes those characters? James Gunn does, that’s who.
The film has a script by Justin Kuritzkes who worked with Guadagnino on Challengers and Queer.
There is one potential problem and that’s Farrell’s busy schedule. He’s got two films on the way this awards season, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey for Sony and Netflix’s The Ballad of a Small Player, and they could make Farrell less available than the studio needs. So we’ll see if this all gets worked out in time for Sgt. Rock to shoot this summer as planned.
