Stephen Sommers tapped to direct G.I. JOE
Can we expect Kate Beckinsale as the Baroness? The Rock as Sgt Slaughter?
Secret intel from (Cobra) La-La Land says Paramount has offered Mummy maven Stephen Sommers the Herculean task of bringing Hasbro's cherished military property "G.I. Joe" to the big screen, under the supervision of Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
According to Michael Dayspring at IESB, Sommers will inherit a script cobbled together from existing drafts submitted by Skip Woods (Hitman) and the team of David Elliott and Paul Lovett (Four Brothers).
The Woods treatment was an origin story, showing how Cobra Commander created his terrorist organization, COBRA, and honed it into a worldwide threat. Producer di Bonaventura later hired Elliott and Lovett to write a draft that was more of a straight adaptation than Skip’s draft.
Mayimbe at LatinoReview.com called Elliott and Lovett's first draft "very solid and a great starting point. The action is really cool and there is even some lighthearted comedy in the script that G.I. JOE is also known for."
Just as Transformers was opening in early June, Paramount sources revealed to IESB that the studio, with much insistence from di Bonaventura and Hasbro, were going back to elements of the earlier draft.
Is Mark Wahlberg still strapping on Duke’s boots, as IESB originally reported? di Bonaventura is "desperate" for the Shooter star to play the Joe leader, and Wahlberg has confirmed that he is interested in the project.
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PAnthony
8/12/2007
IESB