If you’ve been looking for further, not-too-spoiler-y details on Stephen Sommers’s G.I. Joe flick, you should head over MTV Movies and read their interview with Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner. Though a good deal of Goldner’s disclosures are already common knowledge (e.g. comics scribe Larry Hama is working on the screenplay for the currently-in-production film), he does provide the most thorough outline of the plot that I’ve read to date. And while this is not, and probably never will be, on my list of must-see films for 2009, it does sound like they’ve put a great deal of effort into honoring everything fans loved about the comic books while avoiding the chintziness of the cartoon. Whether this will offset the politically timid decision to reconfigure Joe as a Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Quoth Goldner, “We all know of the Arashikage [ninja clan], and we all know of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, but we need to build that story. We all know the story of Duke, and the story of the Baroness. … We know the story of Destro, but do we really? We need to go back and tell the origin story of how you get a Scottish arms dealer, who comes forward in history — how does that happen?”
That sounds like a lot of story, which should make everyone nervous after the undisciplined failure of Sommers’s Van Helsing. But according to Goldner, there is a focus: “In effect, [G.I. Joe] is all about the rise of Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). … For fans, they’re really going to love this, because we take them on a journey. … We have to go through the first chapter and then build from there.”
For more from Goldner, click over to MTV Movies for the rest of the interview. Paramount currently has G.I. Joe set for an August 7, 2009 release.