Paramount’s G.I. JOE reboot movie finally found a director.
According to The Hollywood Reported, Danny McBride will direct the currently untitled feature for Paramount Pictures.
“I’m stoked about it. I’m really fired up about the script. Paramount seems fired up about it, so hopefully we’re shooting it next year,” McBride said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast a few weeks ago.
He wrote the script with his RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES writers Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri and confirmed the movie will take place in “Springfield, which is a town that’s secretly all COBRA,” which CBR reported is the “terrorist organization and nemesis of the G.I. Joes.”
While plot details are under wraps, the iconic Hasbro toy has a lot of lore to pull from.
THR said the iconic action-figure solider launched in the mid-1960s before relaunching in the ‘80s.
“Capturing the decade’s macho and patriotic zeitgeist, it was appropriately named G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero,” the outlet said. “This version not only introduced a commando strike force featuring soldiers with monikers such as Duke, Roadblock and Snake Eyes, but also its over-the-top, hi-tech adversary, the terrorist organization known as Cobra with key bad guys including Cobra Commander, Baroness, Destro and Zartan.”
Related: G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA
Movie adaptations followed in the early and mid 2000s, with G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA and G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, plus a SNAKE EYES spinoff in 2021.
The project is personal for McBride.
“It was definitely the cartoons and the comics. G.I. Joe was my thing when I was a kid,” McBride said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “I liked that more than Star Wars, more than anything. I loved G.I. Joe. I still have all the characters. I tried to give my G.I. Joe collection to my son, and he wasn’t interested. You know who’s interested? My daughter, who likes robots. That’s who plays with Gung-Ho and Snake Eyes.”
He was tight-lipped about casting but said, “We have some pretty interesting people lining up to be in it, too. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it looks like it’s going to be pretty fun.”
The G.I. JOE movie has been a priority for Paramount, which is now under new owner David Ellison. According to THR, the studio has been “ramping up development of major IP and brands” like Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Longtime G.I. Joe fans can’t wait to see where McBride takes the iconic franchise next.
Read Next: G.I. JOE: RETALIATION
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