Small Soldiers Fan Film Imagines Epic Modern Reboot
25 years after an army of action figures turned playtime into wartime in Small Soldiers, the "toys that play back" are back in action in Small Soldiers: War for the Nekron. Created by video game company Comadran Studios using real-time 3D creation tool Unreal Engine 5, the five-minute fan-made proof of concept trailer imagines a modern sequel to the 1998 film — and it's like Toy Story on steroids. Small Soldiers, directed by Gremlins filmmaker Joe Dante, saw Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones) —Small Soldiers Fan Film Imagines Epic Modern Reboot leader of toy soldiers the Commando Elite — wage war on Archer (Frank Langella) and his Gorgonites after toy designers equipped the figures with military-grade microprocessor chips.
Inside a just-closed toy shop, Space Elite action figure Ray Razor bursts free from her packaging with a directive from "CHIPHZRD" to neutralize the Necronite threat: alien-like play figures. The store becomes a warzone as Razor summons her Space Elite army — including pyromancer Prick Pyro and the dual gun-wielding Death Bullet — to hunt down the peaceful creatures. Watch Small Soldiers: War for the Nekron below.
In 2007, DreamWorks reportedly commissioned Alan Schoolcraft (Megamind) and Brent Simons (Penguins of Madagascar) to write a Small Soldiers sequel that never materialized. By 2014, Fast & Furious director Justin Lin was attached to produce Toymageddon for Fox, described as "a four quadrant, live-action family adventure movie in the vein of Jurassic Park and Ghostbusters" about "a toy factory that runs amok," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The rumored Small Soldiers reboot never made it off the shelf.
Small Soldiers grossed $87.5 million against a reported $40 million budget when it opened against Armageddon, Lethal Weapon 4, Madeline, and Dennis the Menace Strikes Again in the summer of 1998. The original movie featured a cast that included Kirsten Dunst (Jumanji), Gregory Smith (Harriet the Spy), Jay Mohr (Jerry Maguire), and Phil Hartman (Saturday Night Live) as the toy-tormented humans, and Jones, Langella, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Jim Cummings, Jim Brown, and Bruce Dern as the toys-come-to-life.
