It was on, then it was off, and now it seems its all been worked out. Stephen Sommers, the man who directed the first 2 “The Mummy” movies and the craptacular “Van Helsing” has been signed and confirmed as the man who will direct the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. Opinion on this is going to be pretty wide spread. Yahoo News gives us the story:
Call it “G.I. Go.” Paramount Pictures finally has mobilized “G.I. Joe,” hiring the director of the “Mummy” movies to shoot a live-action film based on the popular Hasbro military action figures. “G.I. Joe” had long been in development at Paramount, though it gained traction thanks in part to “Transformers,” the hit summer movie based on another Hasbro toy line. Director Stephen Sommers’ take was inspired by a trip to Hasbro’s headquarters in Rhode Island, where he learned in depth about the world of G.I. Joe. Sommers then met with Paramount brass, who sparked to his ideas. The studio is eyeing a summer 2009 release.
The story came out that they hit a snag in negotiations due to the fact that Sommers was demanding something in the neighborhood of $10 million to direct it… to which Paramount said “ummmm… no”. No word on which side caved. But that’s neither here nor there at the moment… the issue at hand is this questions:
“Are those of you looking forward to a G.I. Joe movie happy or disapointed with the signing of Sommers to direct”?
Even here at The Movie Blog Village there are differing opinions. I certainly don’t think this is a GREAT signing, but that it COULD be ok. Doug on the other hand is ready to proclaim movie Jihad he so upset about this guy. I guess we’ll have to wait till 2009 to see how this pans out.
