‘Rogue Trooper’ Movie UK And North America Premieres Announced For The BFI Festival and TIFF

by Richard Bruton

Well, we know it’s all finished and done, and it’s had an international premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival back in June, but now there’s an official UK premiere of the Duncan Jones-helmed animated feature of one of 2000 AD‘s greatest characters …

The animated Rogue Trooper feature will receive its UK premiere at the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival, with screenings on 9th, 12th, 16th October. And there’s also North American premieres happening at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10th, 19th, 20th September.

This is, of course, rather great news indeed. These premieres will hopefully get a distributor involved, and we’ll all finally get the chance to see the damn thing. But at the moment, no word on either a distributor or general release. Fingers crossed.

If you didn’t already know, the movie is based on the Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons-created character for 2000 AD, the British sci-fi weekly anthology comic. First appearing in Prog 228 back in 1981, the character’s become one of the big names of the comic, beloved by fans, and acclaimed for the work of such luminaries as Colin Wilson, Brett Ewins, Cam Kennedy, Steve Dillon, and, more recently, Garth Ennis, Patrick Goddard, Alex De Campi and Neil Edwards.

It’s future war, done so well, featuring the exploits of Rogue Trooper, the last of the Genetic Infantrymen, creations of the Souther Generals, designed to win the never-ending war against the Norts, specially adapted for living (and fighting) on the toxic wasteland of Nu Earth. Accompanied by the souls of his fallen comrades in bio-chips embedded in his rifle, his helmet, and his backpack, Rogue’s lonely battle and his quest to track down the Traitor General responsible for the deaths of his blue-skinned GI comrades are essential reading.

The movie is produced, written and directed by Jones, the man behind Moon, Source Code, Mute, and Warcraft, and features the voice talents of Aneurin Barnard as Rogue Trooper, alongside Hayley Atwell, Jack Lowden, Daryl McCormack, Reece Shearsmith, Jemaine Clement, Matt Berry, Diane Morgan, Alice Lowe, Asa Butterfield, and Sean Bean.