Development of Sgt. Rock (film)

{Short description|none}} Sgt. Rock is a planned American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name in development at DC Studios and to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film is intended to be an installment in the DC Universe (franchise) (DCU) Colin Farrell has been attached to star in The Title role since the film was announced in November 2024.

Early development and announcement

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to play Sgt. Rock in a film produced by Joel Silver, with screenplays written by David Peoples (1987), Steven E. de Souza (1988), John Milius (1993), and Brian Helgeland (1996) depicting Rock as German-American before John Cox wrote a new screenplay unrelated to the previous drafts. Eventually, Cox stated that Schwarzenegger was no longer attached to star in the project. In April 2007, David Gambino, VP of Silver Pictures said, "The good news is we have a fantastic screenplay and everybody's really happy with it. It's really just about trying to attach cast right now and really decide what the movie is going to be, how we're going to make it". Bruce Willis was reportedly in consideration for the role and Guy Ritchie rumored to direct. However, in December 2008, Ritchie said that while the film was shelved due to his work on Sherlock Holmes, he confirmed that the Sgt. Rock film would be set during World War II and include the Easy Company. In February 2010, Silver announced that the film would now be set in the near future. Francis Lawrence was later announced to be directing the film with Chad St. John writing the screenplay, By late November 2024, Justin Kuritzkes had written the script for a film featuring the character Sgt. Rock. Luca Guadagnino and Daniel Craig were in negotiations to direct and star in the title role, respectively, after working together with Kuritzkes on the film Queer (2024). Though there was potential for the project to fall apart if the deals with Guadagnino and Craig did not go through, DC Studios was said to be "bullish" on Kuritzkes's script and it was expected to be Guadagnino's next film ahead of his planned adaptation of the novel American Psycho (1991). Craig had not been attached to the role and passed On It by February 2025, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts and his dissatisfaction with the reception to Queer. Colin Farrell entered negotiations to star in March, but production was halted at the end of April, reportedly due to location shooting issues, but could potentially be reassessed later that year for filming in mid-2026. Gunn stated in June that the film was put on hold because it "wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be creatively" and he felt it needed to "change a little bit" first. He confirmed that it was still moving forward, and said Guadagnino was no longer involved the following month.