Caffeinated Clint
Stephen Sommers confirmed as the director
Stuart Beattie (“Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Collateral”) is the latest writer – following Paul Lovett and David Elliot, and more recently, Skip Woods – to take a stab at the “G.I Joe” screenplay, according IESB.
Says the site, “I read both scripts and they both were worlds apart. The Skip Woods draft was very ballsy and as most of our readers know it included a character that was not part of Joe team, British Operative Alex Mann A.K.A Action Man.
The script had same great Tech aspects and was very “Bourne-Like” and was written as a Rated R film which was sure to be changed in future drafts but it never got the chance.
Yes it did have issues with the characters and it did not rely on much of the original source material and Hasbro wasn’t satisfied with the script. Although there were some great action scenes and good aspects to this script but it wasn’t the GI Joe that we grew up with.
The Elliot/Lovett script on the other hand was GI Joe 100% but that is where the problem was. I read that script and there was no doubt that it was Joe…a cartoon GI Joe. That script had all characters that we all grew up with including Cobra, Destro, the Baroness, Duke, Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Hi-Tech and every action figure that you ever owned but it really did feel like I was reading a 90’s video game adaptation like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat and it didn’t feel real whatsoever. At least the Skip Woods draft had a real world feel to it.
So what is Stuart Beattie using from these scripts? We are being told that this is a page one rewrite. Stuart is starting from scratch and we might be setting the Joe team in the near future around a major military conflict but will stay away from any recent real world terrorist events.
How about Alex Man AKA Action Man? Looks like he will be gone, this new script is set to be 100% GI Joe, it will revolve around the characters we all grew up with fighting Cobra, Destro, the Baroness and Storm Shadow.
When do they expect to have this new script ready? Six to eight weeks. Pre-production is expected to start by October-November and production to start early ’08.”
Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy”) is directing the film. Though IESB reported that a few weeks back, the trades only confirmed it today.
