GI Joe has been in the news recently as Paramount is gearing up to make a sequel to that POS that was released in 2009. I had hoped that after a little time had passed that they would rethink the approach and just reboot again but it seems like they'd rather take the lazy predictable approach and just continue forward with part 2. The first film boasted the worst casting I've seen in quite a long time.Obviously they didn't consult the Bucket and our casting call cause if they had I can guarantee the film would have been much better. Sienna Miller as the Baroness? Please. Marlon Wayans as Ripcord? You have got to be kidding me. The good news is that Stephen "Craptastic" Sommers has been booted from the second one, the bad news is that they hired that guy who directed the Justin Bieber movie. WTF? Director Jon Chu is also known for those Step Up Dance movies. I read an article where he said something like this, "Because of my background in dance and choreography, my love of movement. I can do a lot with an action movie." Right, they do move a lot in dance movies but that doesn't mean you can direct a hard charging military action flick. Although he did say GI Joe needed to be tougher and not kiddie, so he does have that going for him.
So what we are going to do is revisit the mistakes of the first film and what Chu and Paramount should do to at least try and fix the sequel since they are unwilling to start from the top. We are going to add 5 more new Joes to our casting call and 4 new Cobra characters. Cody is going to do a special new casting for one of his favorite Joes, Cover Girl, who was totally botched in the first film. So pay attention this time Paramount, Cody and I know what were talking about we know what makes GI Joe tick so if you truly want a successful and awesome GI Joe movie then you really need to listen to what were saying and make those changes, and hey you've got the best deal we're not gonna charge you a dime. It's a win win for all. (We'll be posting our picks over the next couple days)
The first film focused mainly on Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) and those God awful accelerator suits. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were pretty cool but not in it enough. The romantic plots between Duke and the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Ripcord and Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) was just god awful. Never have I seen so many pairs of mismatched people in my entire life. And of course Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) were just--painful. Especially after Cody put Eccleston down perfectly as Dr. Mindbender. He would have been a great one had they gone that route. He's not menacing enough to be Destro even with the helmet. And we're not even going to discuss General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), it just hurts to think about how horrible he was in the movie. So the question is what can we do to turn this shitfest around. Let's start with what they have done right so far. Getting rid of Sommers is a key step, that guy couldn't direct his way out of a paper bag. Adding the writers of Zombieland could be a good move. I did like that movie and thought it was well written and funny, but I'm not sure if that translates into a solid GI Joe action movie. They also are not asking back any of the original cast except for Duke, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. This is certainly an improvement but I hope it doesn't mean that there won't be a Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness or a well rounded Joe team. I certainly don't trust Paramount with the keys so they are going to have to do quite a bit to convince me they are capable of making a kick ass GI Joe film.
Now in the original
Casting Call for GI Joe I chose 8 of my favorites that I thought would be great in the film. Three and a half of those actually made it into the movie: Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes and technically Roadblock even though he was called Heavy Duty (Who was really just a Roadblock ripoff on the show anyway). (You can also check out the 8 Cobra's cast by Cody if you click right
here.) I still stand by my call that Kevin McKidd would make a great Duke and Amy Adams would have been a really excellent Scarlett, but I doubt you could get her now since her asking price went up after the Oscars. I'm hopeful that they give Shipwreck a try for the next film since he didn't make it in the first one. Josh Holloway is perfect and he seems to need some work so help a guy out and get him for the next movie as Shipwreck. As for Flint and Lady Jaye, it could be overkill especially if you have Duke and Scarlett but I still think they would be great for any ensemble especially if you get Nathan Fillion as Flint and Morena Baccarin as Lady Jaye. They have such great chemistry together from their stint on Firefly that it would be a shame not to let them sizzle up the screen with their sexual tension.
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