There’s a particular kind of studio panic you can feel through the trades—when a legacy brand sits on the shelf long enough that the next reboot stops being “the next reboot” and starts turning into a choose-your-own-adventure. That’s the energy around “G.I. Joe” right now, with Paramount reportedly commissioning multiple screenplay takes at once as it tries to figure out what, exactly, the modern version of this thing is supposed to be.
The headline-grabber is the name attached to one of those drafts. The Hollywood Reporter says Max Landis (“Chronicle,” “Bright”) is writing a “G.I. Joe” movie for the studio—an assignment that lands as a very public return after his career essentially froze amid misconduct allegations that surfaced during the #MeToo era.
Per THR’s report, Danny McBride (“Pineapple Express,” “The Righteous Gemstones”) is also writing a separate “G.I. Joe” script for the studio, as Paramount weighs different directions and potentially merges the material.
Landis’ reemergence is the piece that will draw the most scrutiny. In 2019, The Daily Beast published a report in which eight women accused him of a pattern of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse—allegations Landis did not immediately respond to at the time, according to contemporaneous coverage. (Vanity Fair also reported that projects tied to his writing sought to distance themselves amid the allegations. )
All of this is unfolding inside a franchise moment that’s already complicated. “G.I. Joe” isn’t just a dormant toyline looking for a new movie—it’s also the other Hasbro property that Paramount’s “Transformers” films have been inching toward on-screen. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” ended by teasing the clandestine organization and setting up a future crossover, while also acknowledging how the modern “G.I. Joe” films have struggled to find consistent traction. But nothing has transpired since, aside from a mooted crossover that might star Chris Hemsworth.
Recent “G.I. Joe” attempts also haven’t exactly built the kind of box-office momentum that makes a studio feel patient. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” (2009) finished at about $302.5 million worldwide, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” (2013) did better at roughly $375.7 million worldwide, and then the franchise face-planted with “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins” (2021), which grossed about $40.1 million worldwide against a reported $88–110 million budget.
That’s why the “multiple scripts” approach is so telling. You can read it as a studio trying to crack tone—military action? espionage? sci-fi?—or as a company trying to build a bigger shared sandbox that can live adjacent to Autobots and Maximals without feeling like a contractual obligation. Either way, the names involved suggest two very different instincts: Landis, a screenwriter known for genre-forward work like “Bright,” and McBride, whose sensibility tends to run character-first, abrasive, and comedy-volatile when it wants to.
For now, the only firm takeaway is the unusual staffing reality: a major studio is reportedly developing parallel versions of its “G.I. Joe” movie simultaneously, with McBride and Landis both in the mix. And whichever direction “G.I. Joe” finally takes—standalone reboot, “Transformers” tie-in, or something stranger—this is the sort of behind-the-scenes decision that winds up defining the entire pitch before a single cast member signs on.
