G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) The first film in the series, released on August 7, 2009. It grossed $302 million worldwide. It was directed by
Stephen Sommers from a screenplay by
Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, and Paul Lovett and a story by Michael B. Gordon, Beattie, and Sommers. In 1994, Larry Kasanoff and his production company,
Threshold Entertainment, had held the rights to do a live-action
G.I. Joe film with
Warner Bros. as the distributor. Instead they chose to concentrate their efforts on their
Mortal Kombat films. As late as 1999, there had been rumors that a film from Threshold Entertainment was still a possibility, but that project was canceled. In 2003,
Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced military technology;
Hasbro's
Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the film on the
G.I. Joe toy line. Goldner and Bonaventura worked together before, creating toy lines for films Bonaventura produced as
CEO of
Warner Bros. Goldner and Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B. Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for
300. Bonaventura wanted to depict the
origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke. Rex's name came from Hasbro. Beforehand,
Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the
Iraq War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to develop
Transformers (
another Hasbro toy line) instead. Bonaventura felt, "What [the Joes] stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with." In their script, the Rex character is corrupted and mutated into the
Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an army of supersoldiers.
Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he added the Alex Mann character from the British
Action Man toy line. Bonaventura explained, "Unfortunately,
our president has put us in a position internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called
G.I. Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do." The script was leaked online by El Mayimbe of
Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped the
Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked
CIA agent. In this draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke, and is killed by the Baroness. Snake Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested
Stuart Beattie rewrite the script. Fan response to the film following the script review was negative. Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time." He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as depicted in the cartoon]". In August 2007,
Paramount Pictures hired
Stephen Sommers to direct the film after his presentation to CEO
Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston was well received. Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after visiting Hasbro's headquarters in
Rhode Island. The project had found the momentum based on the success of
Transformers, which Bonaventura produced with Murphy. Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers's film, and G.I. Joe comic and filecard writer
Larry Hama was hired as
creative consultant. Hama helped them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script. He persuaded them to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake Eyes speaks. To speed up production before the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee Hancock,
Brian Koppelman and
David Levien also assisted in writing various scenes. Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the cartoon. Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise, the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike. After
Variety had reported that G.I. Joe became a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, there were reports of outrages over Paramount's alleged attempt to change the origin of G.I. Joe Team. Hasbro responded on its G.I. Joe website claiming it was not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about, and the name "G.I. Joe" will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism. Instead, it would be a modern telling of the "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" storyline, based out of the "Pit" as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) The second film in the series, released on March 28, 2013, in
3D and
IMAX 3D. It grossed $375 million worldwide. It was directed by
Jon M. Chu from a screenplay written by
Rhett Reese, and
Paul Wernick. For the second film, after the financially successful release of
The Rise of Cobra, Rob Moore, the studio vice chairman of
Paramount Pictures, stated in 2009 that a sequel would be developed. In January 2011, Rhett Reese and
Paul Wernick, the writers of
Zombieland, were hired to write the script for the sequel. The film was originally thought to be titled
G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes, which was later denied by Reese.
Stephen Sommers was originally going to return as director of the sequel, but Paramount Pictures announced in February 2011 that
Jon Chu would direct the sequel. In July 2011, the sequel's name was revealed to be
G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Chu would later declare that Paramount wanted a
reboot that also served as a sequel to
The Rise of Cobra since "a lot of people saw the first movie so we don't want to alienate that and redo the whole thing."
Snake Eyes (2021) In May 2018, Paramount announced a film centered on
Snake Eyes, with
Evan Spiliotopoulos hired to write the script. In December,
Robert Schwentke signed on as director with principal photography scheduled to take place in
Japan,
Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada and
Los Angeles, California.
Ray Park was later reported to not reprise the role, as the film deals with the character's origin story. By August 2019,
Henry Golding was cast as Snake Eyes, while
Andrew Koji was set to portray Storm Shadow, replacing
Lee Byung-hun, who portrayed the character in previous films. Kimani Ray Smith was hired as Stunt Coordinator on the project. In September 2019,
Iko Uwais entered negotiations to portray
Hard Master, while
Úrsula Corberó was cast as
Anastasia Cisarovna / Baroness (replacing
Sienna Miller, who played the character in
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra). James Madigan was hired as the Second-Unit Director, after previously working on
G.I. Joe: Retaliation. By October 2019,
Samara Weaving was cast as
Shana O'Hara / Scarlett (replacing
Rachel Nichols, who previously portrayed the character in
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), while
Takehiro Hira,
Haruka Abe and
Steven Allerick were cast in an undisclosed roles. The film was scheduled for an October 23, 2020 release date, and was delayed to July 23, 2021, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. == Future ==