Comedy star Danny McBride has given a promising update on his G.I. Joe movie over at Paramount, and says it could start filming next year.
"I've written one. I'm stoked about it. I'm really fired up about the script," Said McBride to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "Paramount seems fired up about it. So hopefully we're shooting it next year."
Created by Hasbro in the '60s, the G.I. Joe franchise revolves around a special mission force battling against a terrorist organization known as Cobra. The Pineapple Express star revealed that he has been a G.I. Joe fan since childhood. "It was definitely the cartoons and the comics. G.I. Joe was my thing when I was a kid. I liked that more than Star Wars, more than anything," added McBride. "I still have all the characters."
However, the star didn't initially plan to make a movie about Joe right off the bat. "I had an idea for a Dreadnoks movie," said McBride. "So I went to Paramount and pitched it, and they were like, 'Well, the franchise kind of needs to be like it needs to be launched, so we can't come out with a Dreadnoks movie. Would you have an angle for a G.I. Joe project?' And I was like, 'Hell yeah, I'll have an angle for that.'"
In the G.I. Joe world, Dreadnoks are a group of mercenaries and thieves who work for various villainous groups, including Cobra. However, it sounds as though the Dreadnoks may still show up in McBride's G.I. Joe movie. The star revealed, "You're following Duke and a group of other Joes. There's that town in the comic, Springfield, which is a town that's secretly all Cobra, and so that is where our film takes place."
McBride penned the script with his Righteous Gemstones collaborators Jeff Bradley and John Couture. "We sat down, and we cracked something that we really love a lot," added the Tropic Thunder star. But just because McBride is known for his funny bone, he says the new film "weirdly grounds G.I. Joe. It's not a comedy; it's like kind of suspense and action. I think it's going to be a lot of fun."
McBride didn't give any casting details away, but he did tease, "We have some pretty interesting people lining up to be in it… it looks like it's going to be pretty fun." Well, if G.I. Joe can replicate the success of Barbie, McBride is onto a winner.
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