Exclusive: G.I. Joe Update

Producer on the tale of two scripts.
by Scott Collura

June 14, 2007 - G.I. Joe won't be the first '80s toy line/cartoon that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has adapted to the big screen: His live-action Transformers movie hits theaters next month, of course. But G.I. Joe, which like Transformers originated in plasticine form, has actually been on di Bonaventura's plate even longer than those robots in disguise have been. So why the long wait in seeing a finished G.I. Joe movie?

After what has seemed like an interminable development process, it was recently reported that Hasbro has renewed its deal with Paramount to bring the long-simmering would-be film franchise to the silver screen.

"Actually, there were two incarnations of [the G.I. Joe script] and we're proceeding down both roads," di Bonaventura recently explained to IGN. "You know, there's a lot of misinformation about this and I'm glad you asked this question. We had pursued originally a take on the project written by David Elliot and Paul Lovett, which was put aside for a period of time. And then a second avenue was taken that included Action Man, and that was being written by Skip Woods."

Action Man is a British toy line based on the original 12-inch (pre-1980s) version of the G.I. Joe line. The Woods script reportedly combined Action Man and G.I. Joe into a single adventure, though this plan was met with a less than happy response by the online fan community.

"Skip Woods' draft came and somehow leaked, which is always unfortunate," says the producer. "I find it really unfortunate on the part of the writer, the artist, because Skip had literally, from the day he finished his contract to the day that draft came in, seven weeks [to complete it] because of the timeline that was being required by the overall deal. So, it has been judged in some circles, I think, harshly, and I think unfortunately like all creative processes it was just the very beginning of it. And I know that Skip is working hard on his next draft and is going to nail it."

Di Bonaventura compares the criticism of the leaked script to the nitpicking that some of the early Transformers designs were victim to when they first hit the Internet during that film's preproduction stage.

"I have a very clear vision on G.I. Joe which is the same that I have on every property that I do that people care about," he says. "You must find a way to be true to it, and you must find a way to evolve it forward. And I think one of the hardest things as a filmmaker… if you go back to Transformers [for example], the designs of Optimus and everything were being very harshly criticized early on. And what you want to have as a creative process is you want a sense of germination, then a sense of evolution, and then a sense of conclusion. It was being judged in the germination stage. It's such a rudimentary place where it was being judged, and we kept saying, 'You know what, guys? No one has seen it. We haven't even seen it. Until ILM gets involved, we won't even know.' And what is rewarding in that case is that by and large people are really loving what was done to the actual physicality of Transformers. And that's what we have to do with G.I. Joe. It's very simple. Snake-Eyes and Scarlett, Nemesis and Destro and Cobra and Duke and Heavy Duty: These guys have to be rendered as characters that the fan base recognizes and loves, and in a way that the movie can deliver a cool experience that you want to relate to. And that's an evolutionary process. I'd like to think I get it more right than wrong, so I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time."

Keenan's a good director and Damon is the best actor. Marlon and the rest have just been riding thier names through the years. You know, just like the Baldwins.

(Insert Family Guy clip of Alec brest feeding his brothers that I can't find.)

JEW wrote:

Black Zarak wrote: Why does Hollywood insist on putting at least one Wayans brother in everything? They haven't been funny since In Living Color and their value as comic relief is nil, see Dungeons & Dragons. Actually, don't, because it sucks. you know that tehy made a sequel to that movie, right?

Yeah, it was for SciFi Channel, and Direct to DVD. It had low budget special effects, but it was still about 300X better then the original.

First pics of Ray Parks as Snake Eyes:
http://www.filmdrunk.com/post.phtml?pk=1376

(They have right-clicking of images disabled. So I just posted the link. I'm too lazy to do a screen capture and edit.)

Touche'