What has more weight in Hollywood – A $302 million worldwide box office take or a humiliating 34% rating at Rotten Tomatoes? If you answered the latter, I envy the idealistic world you live in. However, the rest of us in reality have to contend with the fact that despite almost universally abysmal reviews, 2009’s G.I Joe: The Rise Of Cobra pulled in over a quarter of a billion dollars and that means that Paramount would be looking for a sequel. And plans for a sequel were indeed announced almost immediately after the film opened.
And while the cast is contractually obligated to appear in front of the cameras for any follow up, it turns out that the film’s director Stephen Sommers won’t be back behind the camera. The news comes from the LA Times’ blog 24 Frames, which reports –
Two agents who represent other filmmakers have said they’d recently been approached about their clients coming on to helm the movie and were told that Sommers would not be getting behind the camera. Paramount declined to comment.
The last we heard of the project was about a year ago when Zombieland scripters Rhett Rheese and Paul Wernick were hired to draft a screenplay for a sequel. Presumably they have turned in their draft and the studio is now looking to move forward.
Given the stories that surrounded Joe’s final weeks of post-production before release, it certainly is understandable that Sommers would not want to come back for a second round. In the meantime, the director is still working on his long-in-development version of Tarzan, though there is no indication that it is close to being ready to go into production.
