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Well Paramount finally whined enough and won the bidding war for Warner Bros. and even though the company has done little to show that they are actually in the process of developing good movies for the future and running a ship geared for success, there is a new report going out that the on again, off again G.I. Joe movie is…well…back on again. Take all this with a huge grain of salt but it is being reported in the big tabloids so maybe this is actually going to happen this time. Remember a few years back when they announced a G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover that seemed to die when the Ellisons took over, well it would appear that they are putting the pedal down on the Ip and there are not one but two scripts being developed by the unlikeliest of sources.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, The David Ellison-owned studio has tapped Max Landis, the screenwriter canceled in the late 2010s during the height of the #MeToo movement, to work on a treatment for a feature adaptation of the Hasbro toy brand.
At the same time, it has also hired The Righteous Gemstones star and creator Danny McBride to work on a separate script for Joe. According to several sources, the studio will then try to blend the two scripts into one but a studio source says that these are to separate projects.
Now I’m not going to focus on Landis and the heat he brought to himself all those years ago, but instead I’m going to spotlight these two projects. First of all, who really knows if Landis and McBride can do any justice to G.I. Joe. I’m more for McBride as he has been steady over the years with certified hits, but who knows if anything will happen from this. There have been three films made for G.I. Joe and all of them have been divisive among fans and critics alike.
Now I have gone on the record in saying that I like all of them with G.I. Joe: Retaliation being my favorite (I seriously don’t understand the hate that movie gets as it is the closest to the Real American Hero line that hit in the early 80’s). I mean it had The Rock’s return to action. More Ninja action with a whopping twenty-minute homage to the famous and groundbreaking Silent Interlude issue of the comic and it climaxed with The Rock and the late, great Ray Stevenson engaging in one hell of a Gun Fu battle. Seriously, what’s not to love? Oh, I forgot that it also featured an extended cameo by Bruce Willis who deployed a little of that John McClane bravado.
The report says that these are two separate projects, but they hope to merge them into one which is fine but all we can do is hope that they blend the best parts and actually make a film that we can all be proud of. Everyone knows how much of a fan I am of all things Yo Joe and never having a successful live action franchise has always been a sore spot with me. It’s hard to develop a good movie because there are so many characters and lore to the IP but I still hold out hope that one day there will be justice on the big screen.
I did a podcast episode a few years back where I mapped out what might make G.I. Joe successful and one aspect was doing it for streaming and maybe even doing a series out of it. If you do a series, you can implement more characters into the fray and broaden the scope of the legacy even more. Plus, if you keep the budget down and make it more stripped down and grounded like the first comics were, then maybe it can work. No disrespect but I don’t think that bringing Landis and his baggage into the fray is a good fit for an already suffering franchise. Why would Paramount, who is trying to merge with the WB and get their own studio up and running bring on someone who is toxic? Alas, that is not form me to decide and I can only hope it doesn’t blow up what could be promising. I’m sure there are many out there who think they have all the answers.
Check out my audio episode of The Action Fix where I talk about it below! I plan on doing a YouTube episode of it when I finally kickstart my Yo Joe leg of my Action Fix show but in the meantime, check out what I have mapped out.
At the time there was talk of MCU alum Chris Hemsworth joining the Joe/Transformers crossover and I feel if it was treated with respect, it could have really been something. But since Skydance and the Ellisons took over they nixed that project as well as the Last Ronin Ninja Turtles live action R rated film which is a crime.
Now let me just point out that the G.I. Joe movie franchise could rake in massive success and score at the global box office if the people behind the scenes of these movies respected and understood the lore and legacy. Is Landis and McBride the best fit for what ails the Joes? There’s no telling and I doubt they are massive fans of the properly. Hopefully they do some serious research and outline specs that cater to the fans while bringing in the mainstream audiences to make the films profitable. I’ve done so many of these stories on G.I. Joe that don’t pan out that I’m losing my faith in it all.
This is all in the early stages of course and quite frankly I’m not holding my breath anymore, so we wait and wait and wait. You know what to do in the meantime. Lock “n Load and check back in the future for any developing situations as the G.I. Joe development rumor train keeps on chugging along.
