The film rights to the novel were licensed in the 1990s, several years after Heinlein's death. The project was originally entitled "Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine", and had been in production before the producers bought the rights to "Starship Troopers". The film was directed by Paul Verhoeven (who found the book too boring to finish), and released in 1997. The screenplay, by Ed Neumeier, shared character names and some plot details with the novel. The film contained several elements that differed from the book, including a military that is completely integrated with respect to sex. It had the stated intention of treating its material in an ironic or sarcastic manner, to undermine the political ideology of the novel. The mechanized suits that featured prominently in the novel were absent from the film, due to budget constraints.