G.I. JOE: RETALIATION – Roundup 1.10.13
This movie is already under a cloud of suspicion because it was pushed back about a year — supposedly to tweak the 3D conversion. But recently, a lot of rumors have been floating that major reshoots and new edits have been made to make the movie more about Channing Tatum’s character, Duke.
Seems like a plausible theory, given that most of the characters from the first movie were written out of the sequel, including Marlon Wayans’ Ripcord. According to stories, test audiences responded well to the chemistry between Tatum and The Rock, who plays Roadblock (a character everyone wanted to see in the first film, but was tied up by legal snares).
Not so, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura tells Crave Online:
“That is a complete rumor. I don’t know where that started. Literally, Channing shot for – if I have it wrong, I’m off by an hour – four hours, five hours? So it wasn’t really about that at all.”
Di Bonaventura says the new footage has more to do with explaining what happens “in what we did afterwards”, meaning maybe more detail in the ending? An epilogue that sets up a third movie?
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Hot Toys has announced the new Snake Eyes action figure, the first collaboration with another toy company. HT posted a gallery of photos over on Facebook.
Some of the characters missing in action on the big screen will be showing up in the new comics from IDW. Re-launching this year in February, the main G.I. Joe title will have a companion title making its debut in March: G.I. Joe: Special Missions. This book will feature an elite squad within the Joes, led by Scarlett and Mainframe. First mission: retrieving a stash of Cobra money at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Written by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Paul Gulacy, Special Missions hearkens back to the Larry Hama version of the title at Marvel back in the eighties.
Rumor has it that Faran Tahir will be playing Cobra Commander in the new film, and Comic Book Movie has an interview he did with The Express Tribune, talking about his involvement in the Iron Man franchise — whether he’ll be back as a member of the Mandarin’s Ten Rings, and how he persuaded the Marvel execs to alter the terrorists to be mercenaries instead of Muslims.
And in case you missed it, here’s an interview with Lee Byung Hun about his character, Storm Shadow, calling him “not a simple villain” at a press conference in Hong Kong. [allkpop]
G.I. Joe: Retaliation opens March 29. Unless they push it back again.
