‘Bill the Galactic Hero’ Movie To Premiere Dec 12

Note: this article was also published on SciFi4Me.com.

Alex Cox, the director of Repo Man and Sid & Nancy, has put his sights on Harry Harrison’s science fiction comedy novel Bill, the Galactic Hero.

First published in 1965, Bill, the Galactic Hero is a science fiction Catch-22, skewing military jingoism and parodying Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and Asimov’s Foundation series. The story follows Bill, your typical farmboy looking for more, who is kidnapped to be a part of the Space Troopers to be your just-as-typical red shirt in the war against the reptilian aliens known as Chingers. Bill accidentally becomes a hero, losing an arm in the process (and ending with two right arms), and ends back at the beginning as he convinces his brother to enlist in the program in order to reduce his own term.

The movie is the result of a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $100,000, and was shot with students from the University of Colorado, where Cox is the assistant professor of film. “Harry’s story of grunts – and one grunt in particular – in the lowest echelon of the war machine – can readily be recreated in an academic environment,” states the Kicskstarter project page.

The finished product will premiere at the International Film Series on December 12, and the trailer is below. The film is in black and white (perhaps as an ode to Clerks?), but begins and ends with an animated cartoon that will hopefully replicate the Flash Gordon-esque colorful covers the book (and its sequels) had. The Kickstarter rewards mention a DVD for backers, but no word as to whether the DVD will be available for non-backers to purchase.

For more information on this project, you can visit the Kickstarter project page, Cox’s blog, or the International Film Series’ website.