Colin Farrell has spoken about the planned Sgt. Rock film for the first time. Farrell is no stranger to the DC Universe, as he plays Oz Cobb / The Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman and the HBO Max spin-off series, The Penguin. However, he was also poised to join the rebooted DC Universe in Sgt. Rock, a film based on the World War II hero of the same name. The project was fast-tracked before DC Studios CEO James Gunn pulled the plug on the production in April 2025.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Farrell was asked about Sgt. Rock, to which the actor replied, “God, that was a fantastic script. I wonder what’s happening with it.” The actor later revealed that he had spoken to director Luca Guadagnino about the project, but he now has no idea about the film’s current status. When asked if he still had any interest in the project now that Guadagnino is not at the helm, Farrell said:
“I was going to do it with Luca. We spoke about it a couple of times and had some really nice chats. I have no idea where it is now, but it should be made. It’s really, really good. There’s some wonderful stuff in it.”
James Gunn Might Have Revealed What Really Happened With ‘Sgt. Rock’
DC Comics
Colin Farrell breaking his silence about the Sgt. Rock script is a sharp contrast to what James Gunn had potentially said about the film. Speaking with NPR in July 2025, Gunn mentioned an unnamed DC Studios project that he pulled the plug on because the script was not working. Gunn didn’t specify which film, but many took it to be Sgt. Rock, as he mentioned that it had a director and writer attached. Sgt. Rock had Luca Guadagnino set to direct a script written by Justin Kuritzkes. Gunn said:
“We had a screenplay that—you know, a movie that was greenlit. We got second draft and third draft, and it just wasn’t changing. It wasn’t getting better. It was staying in the same place. And I said, ‘we can’t make this film. We can’t. It’s not good. We know it’s not good.’ Just because we have a good director attached and a good screenwriter, it doesn’t mean the script is working. Everyone is going to be upset at the end of this. It’s going to come out, the movie’s not going to be good. The director’s going to look bad, the screenwriter’s going to look bad, and we’re going to look bad. So I don’t want to have this. We’re not going to make the movie. And so we killed it.”
Few details are known about Guadagnino and Kuritzkes’ Sgt. Rock script. Rumors suggested it would have centered on Sgt. Rock and Easy Company trying to locate the fabled Spear of Destiny, which would have included Anora star Mikey Madison playing the French Resistance character Mademoiselle Marie. Gunn has hinted that the movie is still in development at DC Studios, but Guadagnino has since moved on. Guadagnino’s latest film, After the Hunt, even features a Sgt. Rock poster in one scene, a remnant of a DC Studios title that will not come to pass.
Farrell, though, will remain in the DC fold. He is set to reprise his role as Oz Cobb in The Batman – Part II, though a possible second season of The Penguin remains up in the air. The door remains open for Farrell to play Sgt. Rock in the DCU’s future, but he is one of those DC Comics characters whose feature film adaptation has been stuck in development hell since the 1980s, and it seems it will remain there for some time.
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