'G.I. Joe' Gets a Director?

Does this mean it will be good? No, probably not.

By: Laremy Legel
Published: Sunday, August 12th 2007 at 5:48 PM

There's some news on the G.I. Joe front, this time from the dudes at IGN. It seems as though G.I. Joe has found a director:

Stephen Sommers, the director behind the first two Mummy films as well as Van Helsing, has been hired to helm the Lorenzo di Bonaventura production for Paramount/DreamWorks

This is an effort to get this project on the road before the dreaded industry strike (which could encompass the Writer's Guild, Screen Actor's Guild, and Director's Guild after July, 2008).

But what does this mean for my favorite childhood comic book? Well, although I liked The Mummy and The Mummy Returns I don't know that this choice makes a difference one way or another. The critical part will be the script, and IGN had a note regarding that too:

The filmmakers will mesh together two existing drafts by different screenwriters (Skip Woods' version and an earlier draft by the Four Brothers team of David Elliot & Paul Lovett).

Two things jump out. First off, the writers behind Four Brothers. Umm, what? This will be a difficult project due to tone right off the bat. Do you take it towards a serious special operations slant? Or do you go a little more tongue in cheek cheesy with the more oddball characters? G.I. Joe thrived in a world that no longer exists, the rah-rah America decade of the 80's. So how do you make it relevant and interesting after a few decades have passed?

Second, why are they cobbling together two scripts? This is another great way to screw up a project – two voices combining to create a mish-mash of themes. I didn't even mention the accelerated timeframe worrying me. Yikes. Okay, so I'm five percent happy to have Sommers on board and dreading the rest of the elements. G.I. Joe, a military series that would have a great chance at becoming a franchise, is now firmly in the "uh-oh" box. I hope the guys can get it together. Yo Joe.