It looks like Danny McBride’s GI Joe movie is gearing up as its found its lead.
Deadline reports that McBride’s movie at Paramount will have the Joes being led by Duke, played by none other than Bradley Cooper.
Cooper, while now considered a ‘serious’ actor, is no stranger to action, having gotten his big break in the Alias TV series opposite Jennifer Garner and then later starring in the A-Team movie as Face, so this isn’t a total departure for him.
I’m hearing that the movie will be a low-key affair, similar to Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, which will boil the story down to a smaller scale.
This ties into what McBride said back in July when he first started talking about the project: “it grounds GI Joe. It’s not a comedy. It’s like kind of suspense and action. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
He revealed that the movie will focus on the town of Springfield, a big part of the GI Joe lore, which was a town in Illinois that was the base of operations for Cobra in the US. Basically, it was a town that housed the bad guys – if you’ve seen Ballerina, think that but with more elaborate costumes – Cobra Commander even had the keys to the town at one point: “There’s that town in the comic, Springfield, which is a town that’s secretly all Cobra. That is where our film takes place.”
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The movie will focus on GI Joe leader Duke “and a group of other Joes”.
The movie will be directed by McBride, who also co-wrote alongside Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri. McBride, best known for his comedy work, has recently been involved in both the Halloween and Alien franchises on the big screen.
According to the report, Cooper was McBride’s top choice to play Duke and despite his very busy schedule, once he read the script and chatted to McBride, Cooper signed on.
However, while this is all very exciting news, the report, right at the end did make a point of saying that the movie would have nothing to do with the long-planned (and set up in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) GI Joe/Transformers crossover ‘that is no longer in development’.
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This is a bummer as I had hoped (though i suspected otherwise) that McBride’s movie would tie into the new universe, but nope.
In fairness, this isn’t that surprising given that the Energon Universe featuring GI Joe, Transformers, MASK and more is currently one of the biggest things in comics and is about to move into the world of animation with a planned series. Maybe there was a fear of the market being too crowded with confusing, not-connected stories. Or maybe they just figured Transformers needs a rest and to be rebooted. Who Knows?
Anyways, Cooper as Duke and no big crossover event, thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em all.
Welcome to Springfield… Danny McBride reveals details on his GI Joe movie
Source: Deadline
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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