Looks like things are really moving forward full steam for the G.I. Joe movie. Just last week they confirmed The Mummy director Stephen Sommers as the director, and now they announced a writer… Stuart Beattie, the man who also penned the excellent “Collateral” as well as “Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl” and the upcoming “30 Days of Night”. Not a bad little resume.
But regardless of how talented Beattie is as a writer (and I really enjoyed both Collateral and the first Pirates film), the harsh reality still exists that G.I. Joe will end up just being a kid friendly, PG13 and fully neutered action film whose sole purpose for existing it to launch and sell new toys. I have no problems with that in general… but when applied to a live action G.I. Joe movie, I just think fans should realistically prepare themselves for what they’re going to get… a true translation of the cartoon… not a grittier all out war movie like some have expressed a desire to see.
That’s not all to say that a G.I. Joe movie can’t still be good… it very well may be… all I’m saying is that it’s not going to be the G.I. Joe movie a lot of people think they’re going to get or are looking forward to. In Transformers, Megatron can litterally rip one of his enemies in half with his bare hands, and because they’re robots instead of human beings they can get away with that for a PG-13 movie. Can do that with non-robotic Joes.
