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I’m told that Paramount Pictures has chosen Jon M. Chu to direct G.I. Joe 2, the sequel to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Chu just made the studio a pile of dough with Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. The competition came down to Chu and Gary Gray. Production will begin in the fall. Chu is repped by WME and Principato Young. I’m told they are working out his deal, but that he’s been told he is the choice. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing. The next task will be to figure out which cast members are returning. I’ve heard the studio is starting with Channing Tatum, and trying to work out a deal for him to reprise.
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Wow, I didn’t think it was possible but this will probably be worse than the first GI JOE.
Really? I think Jon Chu is much more talented than Sommers.
I have a feeling Justin Bieber will appear in G.I. Joe 2. Really.
doesn’t tatum have a multi-picture deal?
I too thought that Channing Tatum had a multi-picture deal for this franchise. I actually enjoyed this movie. It was much better than the Iron Man films.
I just spit soda out all over my desk.
What are you smoking? Iron Man was way better than GI Joe. So was the 2nd one and I thought it was boring.
The Captain America film from 1990 was better than G.I. Joe and that film was pretty bad. In all seriousness though, I interviewed for a position with Jon once and I gotta say that he is as nice and genuine as they come. And you can’t really knock the guy for Step Up 2 and 3 considering he was working with horrible scripts. The man is getting opportunities he deserves. I wish him nothing but the best!
Well yea. Reb Brown was Captain America. Have you seen Space Mutiny or Yor: The Hunter from the Future? Classics.
This may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say! You’re an idiot dude, really? Better than Iron Man? Really?
Better than Iron Man? Are you kidding me?!? Are we still talking about GI Joe, the movie?
I thought it was better than Iron Man as well. I liked Iron Man, don’t get me wrong, but I just enjoyed GI Joe better.
Doesn’t hurt that he takes whatever chances are given him, such as the low budget internet distributed LXD for Paramount and the low-budget Bieber movie. When you play nice with the studio, it will play nice with you.
Also, he doesn’t cost very much. Always a plus.
RE: GI JOE 2, I don’t agree that someone without an action pedigree should be helming a high-profile action film. This is essentially asking for disaster. Chu’s STEP UP 2 THE STREETS was widely panned by audiences and critics.
Seeing that GI JOE 1 was also widely panned due to its direction (and script), this is a brain-dead move. I’m sure Chu is willing to take it though!
I was looking forward to it if F.Gary Gray did it, how could they choose CHU ?!! In one corner is the director of Italian Job, Set it Off, Negotiator & Law Abiding Citizen….and in the other is the director of Step Up ??!!!
Fail ! EPIC !
Money. Chu costs pennies in comparison. Their hope is it won’t show up on film.
No. Gray doesnt cost that much. With a 100+ budget that didn’t factor in AT ALL.
Law Abiding Citizen was badly directed.
Second that. The first GI-Joe was garbage. This one’s not looking any better. When they make the lunch box before they have a script, it’s bound to blow.
So when did you gain power to see the future?
didn’t this guy do “League of extraordinary dancers?” I thought that was a pretty cool superhero web show. so there’s some hope here for me.
Other than that I personally try to reserve judgment until I’ve seen the movie in question because if you go in with an attitude like that you’re going to be disappointed.
@Jared – you are on that blue “breaking bad” meth if you think GI Joe was half as good as the first Iron Man, GI Joe other than the treatment of snake eyes & stormshadow was torture
The first film was the equivalent of a kid in his back yard smashing all his GI Joe’s together and coming up with a ridiculous plot on a Saturday afternoon. And I say that as a compliment. I don’t know what people expected exactly from a movie based on a toy, but you can tell Sommers was all over the place. The attack on GI Joe HQ and the Paris chase were the 2 best parts of the film.
They should bring back everyone, but make the film tighter, make the SFX look less ridiculous, and ramp up the action but in realistic scenarios that will be easier to pull off given the sure to be reduced budget.
Let’s see:
The first film was a creative abomination and by no means a success like Transformers, Iron Man, or Star Trek. It was closer to Fantastic Four or Tomb Raider in terms of gross and reception. And we saw how well sequels to those films did. Better to sit on this property for a few years, let time heal the damaging wounds that have been inflicted upon it, then reboot. But no, let’s reward the guy who directed the Bieber movie and hurt the brand even more . Then again, this is the same studio that just gave Mary Parent a deal.
I have to agree. This movie had no real fan base that liked what they did with the story or any reason to be made other than as a marketing tool. Ir cost $170 million to make and only did $150 million in the US. It did better overseas, but how much of that is actual money for the studio?
Nobody is asking for a sequel – that’s for sure…
Gary Gray would have been the much smarter choice. Let him make the Brazilian Job already why is that still on hold?
You’ve got to be kidding me!!! Jon fucking Chu! Even though the first one sucked you’d think paramount would have enough good sense to hire a director who can handle a movie of this size. the dude did step up and justin ‘i need a haircut’ beiber! he’s going to be crying in the corner on day 3 when a squib goes off too close to him. this movie is already a lost cause. well at least this dud of a franchise won’t be a trilogy.
I am shocked that they didn’t go w F. Gary Gray. The guy’s the master of execution and G.I. JOE needs to have much better execution this time. Summers sucks at execution so I was so looking forward to F. Gary’s version of this movie. He’s actually made big movies (hello – THE ITALIAN JOB!) – and for Paramount of all place. Not sure what’s going through the studio execs and di Bonaventura’s minds on this one. Chu’s not an awful director but this ain’t the right next movie for him. Might as well call it G.I. JOKE now!
I think it’s a play to get tatum back on board. Everyone else is replaceable starting with the masked mute. Tatum and chu worked on the first step it up, so there’s history.
Justin Bieber made the studio a pile of dough with JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER. The director was totally irrelevant to its success.
I was also surprised Paramount went with Jon Chu, because of his lack of experience. And firming up a films strength of story through directorial choices has not, heretofore, been Jon Chu’s strength. However, he is getting a reputation for using 3D in interesting new ways, and does have a relationship with Channing Tatum. The G.I.Joe sequel will be shot in 3D.
I will go see this film just out of curiosity to see how Jon does.
I’d love to know what these guys are thinking. They got EXTREMELY lucky that the first GI JOE didn’t tank off the bad buzz alone. This time they have a chance to rectify everything they messed up AND make some serious coin. Instead they seem to want to go in the exact same direction. Baffling.
Here’s the thing, Yes, it’s based on a toy line that had a cheesy cartoon. But when they were developing the toys, the creators went to Marvel comics and hired them to flesh out the characters, their back stories and the relationships between them. As a result, Marvel went on to produce a fairly well-respected comic book run based on the property.
So while this is never going to be “Saving Private Ryan”, there’s really no reason to assume that the property can’t be done to the same quality as the better comic-book films like “The Dark Knight” or “Iron Man”. It’s not as though it’s a completely hollow property with no narrative to speak of.
Obviously, though, the studio isn’t even aiming that high.
Actually, the input from Marvel wasn’t so much CREATING characters as REWRITING them; G.I.JOE is, to all intents and purposes, an “authorized plagarism” of NICK FURY AND HIS AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.. (Seriously, compare the original toy line-up to the old S.H.I.E.L.D. comics; it’s pretty much just name swapping, particularily the villians of HYDRA/COBRA…)
Did the first one really make enough $ for a sequel? (Serious question)
This is why there is simply no consensus when it comes to films. People simply have different tastes. I truly thought Black Swan was a made- for-tv movie. So overrated. A good pr machine convinced the world that it was a masterpiece.
GIJoe, was truly, and I mean truly, the worst movie I had seen in years. People in the theater were laughing. Yet someone posts that they liked it more than Iron Man? (I didn’t like 2). But really? And at the end of the day it was a hit. I guess for kids. I’m open to films not being for me being hits. I always wonder how old the posters are on this site.
Perhaps my 10 year old nephew liked GIJoe more than I’m – but I guess I assume the poster is older.
I was at Paramount during the development and production of The Italian Job and can tell you F. Gary Gray is a joke. The Italian Job was a $95 million movie that made $106 million at the box office. Big Deal. It’s success was only relative to the absolute dreck the studio released from 2001 to 2004. Serving Sarah? Stepford Wives? Marci X? Orange County? Lucky Numbers? The movie went way over budget and over schedule, and Gray’s ass was saved by the skill of D.P. Wally Pfister and 2nd Unit Director Alexander Witt. F. Gary Gray can’t direct a carton of milk out of a paper bag. End of story.
Really cool to see the LOVE for F. Gary Gray in this thread. He deserves it, and I think he’s way underrated as a director in spite of knocking out some solid hits (‘Menace’, ‘Italian Job’, ‘The Negotiator’, ‘Friday’).
My question is this: why has his career seemingly stalled? You’d think the industry would embrace an ultra competent director of action films. And the bonus is he’s a working director of African American heritage — and it’s not like that’s a big crowd in an industry that professes progressive politics and an embrace of diversity, right? Add it up and It puzzles me that Gray doesn’t get MUCH more work. He’s talented and a deliverer of the goods. Plus, I hear he’s a nice enough guy for whom to work. Not some invective-spewing egomaniac like Michael Bay or David Russell.
Maybe the poster above is right in that Gray’s price tag might be too high, especially in comparison to Jon Chu’s….
The live-action Joe franchise has been one bad judgment call after another from Lorenzo and Paramount. Why Hasbro let them do this is beyond me. Transformers made enough $$ for Paramount that they could have insisted on a better script/cast/direction from the start.
It’s obvious that there is a story here when the new comics are as good as they are; especially “COBRA”, which feels closer to a Clancy novel than a toy property.
Even the new GI Joe Renegades cartoon is 10x better than the GI Joe movie, and its nothing more than an admitted riff on the A-Team and other Fugitive-style chase shows of the past. Decent writing & character development make GI Joe entertaining in other media, its a shame that Paramount can’t follow their examples, or that Hasbro hasn’t insisted on them doing so, to maintain their franchise if for no other reason.
Reece & Wernicke wrote the GI JOE 2 script. If I have to explain more as to how Paramount has made a commitment to character and development on this movie then you are an idiot.
This has STEAMING PILE OF CRAP written all over it.
G.I Joe 2…………….well, after the first piece of crap movie that’s at least one more major film I can skip when it gets churned out.
JOHN CHU?!?!
Have Paramount utterly taken leave of their senses? Take a look over at Universal for almost exactly the same kind of debacles they’ve weathered over there through almost identical decisionmaking. I’m simply staggered at what a bad idea this is. I hope this movie turns into a giant egg-on-the-face exercise for Paramount. We could do with a giant mop to sweep out the regime over there.