Slashfilm has gotten a big scoop on the casting for the GI Joe movie,
and it’s not news that’s as surprising as Sienna Miller playing The
Baroness. In fact, it’s sort of obvious when you think about it: Ray
Park has been cast as Snake Eyes.
If you wasted your youth bathed in the glow of a cathode ray tube or
leafing through Larry Hama-written comics instead of building your mind
and body for the future, you’ll know that Snake Eyes is GI Joe’s
mysterious and black-clad ninja. He wears a mask to cover grievous
facial injuries which also took his voice. So here you have a main
character who is always concealed from head to toe (except for a likely
shot of some bit of scarring – just enough to get across why Snake Eyes
covers his mug) and won’t have a line of dialogue – why not get the
dimunitive, heavily accented martial artist the gig. He’ll be able to
do the moves. Now how long before we learn that Jet Li was cast as Storm Shadow?
Slashfilm also has a synopsis of the film’s plot that I haven’t seen
before (but that just means I haven’t been paying a whole lot of
attention to this particular project more than anything else – head
over there to read all about how GI Joe is co-ed and goes to Egypt.
By the way, I was once at a party with Ray Park, and if I told you that
story I would probably get sued into oblivion, or at least end up on
the receiving end of a roundhouse kick come next year’s Comic Con. It’s
a pretty funny story, though. Yes, I’m teasing you with this. If you’re in Los Angeles and come to the Wright Stuff festival I may tell it to you in person.