Glen here...

Zim! Power suits! Skinnies! Bug guts and death!

DINGLE BERRY just sent in heapin' gobs of information about the Starship Troopers animated series previously reported on Coaxial (I didn't make up that codename - it was requested by the source).

I can't provide a link to my previous coverage. When Aint It Cool News moved from crappy, home-grown graphics to all this damn CGI stuff, some of my articles were lost in the archiving, upgrade, and transition. My Starship Troopers animated piece was one of these articles.

None the less, the following information far transcends anything I've said about this topic before (which was...basically...that a series was in development). Here's what Dingle Berry had to say about the Starship Troopers animated series:

DINGLE BERRY wrote:

REMEMBER - while the series is definitely a go, they are still in the script development stages and casting stages, so what I tell you now may not end up on screen.

It is being made by Sony and most of the staff who worked on the MIB animated series for the WB.

The Starship Troopers animated series is taking elements from the Robert A. Heinlein book as well as the Verhoven film - and some new elements that the animation writers and producers will add.

The series is going to be all CG (like Beast Wars). A digital house has not been selected yet although Netter Digital (owned by Douglas Netter-Producer of Babylon 5) looks like the leading candidate.

((Glen Note: Netter Digital has also been mentioned in conjunction with the Sci Fi Channel's six hour DUNE miniseries, which has apparently hit some financing snags. Back to Dingle Berry:))

There are 40 episodes being produced for strip syndication. So it will be aired Monday-Friday. The entire series will be aired over a period of 8 weeks. The series is an arcing story-line and will have closure by the end of the 40th episode. In each week of the series the mobile infantry will travel to a new planet (or other location) and that weeks episodes will mostly take place there.

Characters such as Johnnie Rico, Carmen, Sgt. Zim will be in the series, but they are part of the regular cast (Zim is only written into 5 episodes as far as I know). There are about 10 voice actors who make up the regular cast of the series, no big names have been cast in any of the lead roles.

It seems like the story line starts before the events that happened in the film, when humans are fighting the bugs, but not having a full scale war with them. But the story arc seems to end long after the events of the film.

One element from the book that you will see in the series are the the Mobile Infantry Power Armor. It isn't exactly like the armor from the book (that was able to drop from out of the sky in orbital troop carriers). But it isnt like that cheezy non-armor stuff from the movie either.

There are 2 different types of power armor. There is the standard mobile infantry power which will give enhanced strength, agility and full protection from any environment. Most of the infanty will be wearing this kind of armor. But in each M.I. unit there will also be 2 Marauder class power armor suits which will be less agile, but much more heavily armed.

Another element from the book that willl be used in the animated series will be the appearence of the Skinnies. Skinny are an alien race that the troopers also fought before taking on the bugs. They are rather thin and elongated (hence they are called Skinnies). One week of the series deals specifically with the battle against the Skinnies.

Week 1: Takes place on Pluto. The a squadron of M.I. is assigned to eradicate what they believe some relatively non-hostile bugs that are indigenous to Pluto. They discover that the bugs are not indigenous and quite hostile.

Week 2: The troops are sent to Hydora- a water world planet to fight the bugs there.

Week 3: The troops are sent to Tofid, homewolrd of the Skinnies, where they do battle. The troopers eventually realize that the Skinnies are actually being controlled by a psychic "Mind Control Bug" who has been manipulating them and forcing them to fight with the humans. When the trooper free the Skinnys from the Mind control bug's power, they want revenge against the bugs. But since the Skinny's do not have faster than light travel, several of them join with the troopers (one becomes part of the regular cast).

Week 4: Takes place on a Jungle planet.

Week 5: The troopers are marooned on an ice asteroid-which turns out be really be a giant bug heading for Earth.

Week 6: The Troopers launch a major offensive strike against Klendathu, the homeworld of the bugs.

Week 7: While the troopers attacked Klendathu, the bugs launched their own campaign against the Earth, the troopers return to Earth to stop the bug invasion.

Week 8: Final battle against the bugs. (location unknown)

They want to get it on the air by Fall of 1999, but with all the heavy CG work that is planned it could be much later than that...

Glen here again...

A huge thanks to Dingle Berry for sharing this information with the world. Very much appreciated, very cool....