A new film in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU has been announced, and it’s probably not one anyone was expecting. According to a report from Deadline, the Oscar-nominated Italian director Luca Guadagnino, who this year alone directed the critically acclaimed Challengers and Queer, is re-teaming with his star from the latter film, Daniel Craig, for a big screen adaptation of DC Comics’ World War II series Sgt. Rock. Guadagnino recently announced a remake of American Psycho, but his DC Studios film is coming together first, as the script is already far along.
Sgt. Franklin John Rock has a long history at DC Comics. He first appeared in the series Our World at War in 1959, presented as a no-nonsense John Wayne soldier type. Writer Robert Kanigher, famous for his Silver Age Wonder Woman comics, and legendary artist Joe Kubert created him. He led his battalion, known as Easy Company, through many battles in World War II. He was so popular, that in 1977, he received his own self-titled series, which lasted until 1988, long past other World War II-centric comics. In fact, his adventures in the war lasted 25 years longer than the war itself did in real life. In DC continuity, Sgt. Rock died by the last bullet fired in the very last battle of World War II.
Luca Guadagnino is a very surprising choice for a potential blockbuster DC film, after having directed only quirky dramas. Another surprising choice is the character of Sgt. Rock himself. A Sgt. Rock movie was once planned in the ’80s, meant to star Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it never came together. In the comics, Sgt. Rock rarely crossed over with DC heroes from the era. He mostly remained in a more realistic bubble, away from superheroes. But maybe Gunn and Luca Guadagnino have other ideas, and hope to tie him more into DCU lore. We could see him working with the World War II era Creature Commandos. When it comes to Sgt. Rock, we can’t wait to see what DC Studios have cooked up.