So, apparently someone posted on producer Don Murphy's message boards that the G.I. Joe movie tested low with audiences, Stephen Sommers was supposedly fired (he might just be locked out of the editing process) and producer deBonaventura had been told to stay away from the editing room. Oh, and Hasbro was panicked because they felt the G.I. Joe franchise was ruined by this movie.
The post was erased, along with its replies and Lorenzo deBonaventura came out and defended the movie saying that it tested well, Stephen Sommers was not fired, etc. It looked to all the world like damage control. We've all seen examples of that (Bay lying that there were no lips on Optimus Prime, WB saying that Joss Whedon was still working on Wonder Woman when in fact they had just purchased a spec script they were going to use with the intention of letting Joss go, reshoots were being done to ensure Galactus be in FF2, the theatrical cut of Wolverine was supposed to be vastly different than the leaked cut, Bradley Cooper not playing Face in A-Team, then he is playing Face, etc ,etc, etc.) We'll see come August 7th, but that's a ways away and a lot more ripping of this movie can take place between now and then.
I think G.I. Joe will not be as bad as everyone says (it'll just be okay) -- perhaps that's more due to the unbelievable ripping this thing is suffering in comparison to what's on screen, but the movie will be pretty unremarkable and forgettable too. All the design style that made the Joe vs. Cobra franchise great is stripped away and replaced by uninspired designs that make you squint to see some detail in amongst all that murky, inky black. The most iconic character (Cobra Commander) is now a cheap dime-a-dozen black costume, and the threat inflicted by Cobra will be ho-hum action fodder. Even cool vehicles are replaced by yawn inducing crap like a Humvee (ooohhh, never seen that before!), or a Cobra ship that looks like a helicopter with no propeller (lame!).
Here is the actual post (posted by "EndTimes") that appeared on Don Murphy's boards before it was erased (looks like fanboy rage more than anything else, but who knows?):
"After a test screening [of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra] in which the film got the lowest test score ever from an audience in the history of Paramount, the executive who pushed for the movie -- Brad Weston -- had Stephen Sommers, the superhack director of the film, fired. Removed. Locked out of the editing room."
"Stuart Baird, a renowned fixer editor, was brought it to try to see if G.I. Joe could be made releasable. Meanwhile producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, whose turkey Imagine That (also championed by Weston) explodes this weekend as the new bomb in theatres, was told his services were no longer needed on the film either."
"Sommers was then forced by his William Morris agents to pretend that he was working on Tarzan over at Warner Brothers, doing design work, even though that film doesn't even have a good script yet. When word of the firing started to be whispered about in Hollywood, Sommers was summoned back to the editing room but merely to save appearances. Baird is still re-editing the movie with studio input.
"Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who turned down other offers from the property to go with the script that was rushed out in eight weeks by Stuart Beattie (i.e., because of the writer's strike), is frantic that the Sommers-created debacle will destroy the brand and is now distancing himself from the pending catastophe.
"None of this needed to happen. The problem is that someone did not know the mythology. Lorenzo di Bonaventura was in charge of the film and never contradicted Sommers on anything. Lorenzo, so you know, was previously a senior Warners honcho and had GI Joe under option there (not as a producer) for seven years and he refused to greenlight the film, stating that because he grew up in Italy he had no knowledge of it.
"If you google enough, at one point you will see he wanted the film to be about an action hero named Mann (Action Man...got it) and he clearly had no clue what the GI Joe world really was.
"And the hapless hack Sommers? Where did he come from? The confused Jon Fogelman at William Morris, who signed Hasbro away from CAA, had to find a director in a hurry for his new clients and gave [Paramount] the only guy who he repped who would do it. A sad end to what could have been a great franchise. Acceleration suits indeed."
You can read about this latest angry post debacle regarding G.I. Joe here:
Here's hoping G.I. Joe gets favourable fanfare upon release enough to warrant a sequel which will repair any damage this movie does.
-Deceptisean
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