GI Joe (film series)

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Films in development

On April 1, 2013, reports surfaced that there will be a third G.I. Joe film, and it will likely be in 3D. The studio announced that Chu will return to direct the third film. While at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con, Chu talked about bringing Scarlett back in the next film. The writers of the second film are also thinking about bringing back the Baroness in the sequel. Johnson is interested in returning as Roadblock for the sequel, and Park has talked about a possible return as Snake Eyes and also including his pet wolf Timber. di Bonaventura told Beijing News that he hoped that Johnson and Willis would return, the script is still in the writing stage, and that they are considering adding a third important role. On September 10, 2013, Chu was confirmed to direct the film, along with writer Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman, Divergent, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) to pen the film's script. On December 5, 2013, Daugherty talked about writing the film's script and his feelings about Duke being killed, but Chu told MTV that Tatum may return as Duke in the sequel.

On April 2, 2014, in an interview with Collider, Johnson said he believed that Chu may not return to direct, due to working on the live action Jem film, but they may find another director for the film. It was revealed that the third film will have a 2016 release date. On June 23, 2014, di Bonaventura told Collider in an interview that they were meeting with new directors and filming may start in early 2015. On July 1, 2014, Variety reported that Jonathan Lemkin will write the script for the film and will focus on Roadblock with Johnson returning. In November 2014, the studio was in talks with Martin Campbell, and D. J. Caruso to direct the third film. On February 5, 2015, Film Divider reported that the twins Tomax and Xamot and Matt Trakker from the TV series M.A.S.K. will be appearing. On April 2, 2015, the studio hired Aaron Berg to write the film and Caruso to direct. In September 2016, Byung-Hun Lee told LRM Online that the studio doing the third film is waiting on the actors to return, including Johnson. In May 2017, Dwayne Johnson stated that if the opportunity arises he would appear in any future G.I. Joe film, and that he hopes to be a part of the franchise expansion as well.

In March 2013, during the release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura announced that he is open to doing a G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover. On July 26, 2013, G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu stated that he is also interested in directing a crossover film. di Bonaventura stated on June 23, 2014 that a crossover was not likely to happen, however he later stated that a crossover was still a possibility. On October 23, 2015, Jon M. Chu confirmed his intentions to make a crossover film between Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Jem.

In November 2015, Paramount Pictures announced that the G.I. Joe series would feature further instalments in the future with Akiva Goldsman creating a writer's room. On December 15, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that both Hasbro and Paramount are creating a movie universe combining G.I. Joe with Micronauts, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, M.A.S.K. and Rom together. In April 2016, The Hollywood Reporter stated that Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer, Cheo Coker, John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein, Joe Robert Cole, Jeff Pinkner, Nicole Riegel and Geneva Robertson have joined the writers room, respectively. In January 2017, Caruso stated to Collider that the script for the crossover movie is now being written. It was announced in September 2017 that the third film is cancelled and a reboot of the franchise will happen.

Development

For the first film, in 1994, Larry Kasanoff and his production company, Threshold Entertainment, held the rights to do a live-action G.I. Joe film with Warner Bros. as the distributor, but instead chose to concentrate their efforts on their Mortal Kombat films. As late as 1999, there had been rumors that a film from Threshold Entertainment was still a possibility, but that project never panned out. In 2003, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced military technology; Hasbro's Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the film on the G.I. Joe toy line. Goldner and Bonaventura worked together before, creating toy lines for films Bonaventura produced as CEO of Warner Bros. Goldner and Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B. Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for 300. Bonaventura wanted to depict the origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke. Rex's name came from Hasbro. Beforehand, Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the Iraq War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to develop Transformers (another Hasbro toy line) instead. Bonaventura felt, "What [the Joes] stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with."

By February 2005, Paul Lovett and David Elliot, who wrote Bonaventura's Four Brothers, were rewriting Gordon's draft. In their script, the Rex character is corrupted and mutated into the Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an army of supersoldiers. Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he added the Alex Mann character from the British Action Man toy line. Bonaventura explained, "Unfortunately, our president has put us in a position internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called G.I. Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do." The script was leaked online by El Mayimbe of Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped the Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked CIA agent. In this draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke, and is killed by the Baroness. Snake Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested Stuart Beattie rewrite the script. Fan response to the film following the script review was negative. Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time." He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as depicted in the cartoon]". Hasbro promised they would write Cobra back into the script.

In August 2007, Paramount Pictures hired Stephen Sommers to direct the film after his presentation to CEO Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston was well received. Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after visiting Hasbro's headquarters in Rhode Island. The project had found the momentum based on the success of Transformers, which Bonaventura produced with Murphy. Sommers partly signed on to direct because the concept reminded him of James Bond, and he described an underwater battle in the story as a tribute to Thunderball. Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers' film, and G.I. Joe comic and filecard writer Larry Hama was hired as creative consultant. Hama helped them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script. He persuaded them to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake Eyes speaks. To speed up production before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee Hancock, Brian Koppelman and David Levien also assisted in writing various scenes. Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the cartoon. Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise, the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike.

After Variety had reported that G.I. Joe became a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, there were reports of outrages over Paramount's alleged attempt to change the origin of G.I. Joe Team. Hasbro responded in its G.I. Joe site claiming it was not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about, and the name "G.I. Joe" will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism. Instead, it would be a modern telling of the "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" storyline, based out of the "Pit" as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series.

For the second film, after the financially successful release of The Rise of Cobra, Rob Moore, the studio vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, stated in 2009 that a sequel would be developed. In January 2011, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Zombieland, were hired to write the script for the sequel. The film was originally thought to be titled G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes, which was later denied by Reese. Stephen Sommers was originally going to return as director of the sequel, but Paramount Pictures announced in February 2011 that Jon Chu would direct the sequel. In July 2011, the sequel's name was revealed to be G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Chu would later declare that Paramount wanted a reboot that also served as a sequel to The Rise of Cobra since "a lot of people saw the first movie so we don't want to alienate that and redo the whole thing."