Channing Tatum has been conducting a wide range of in-depth interviews promoting his new true-crime comedy, “Roofman,” as he reflects on various projects spanning his decades-long career, switching between large and small stories at different studios. One of the parts Tatum is highlighting in a chat on THR’s “Awards Chatter” podcast is Paramount’s 2009 gong-show of a popcorn film “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” and Tatum reveals that he wasn’t interested in the project or Duke role (wanted to play Snake Eyes, instead), but the studio applied pressure after passing an impressive “seven times” and executed an option they had with him as part of a three-picture deal to bag the reluctant actor despite his objections to a half-baked script.
“I passed on ‘G.I. Joe’ seven times, literally seven times, and not because I didn’t like G.I. Joe, I love G.I. Joe. I really wanted to play Snake Eyes. [but] the script wasn’t good,” Tatum explained.” The script wasn’t good. It was right at the writer’s strike during that time. The studio was about to lose the rights to it, and so they needed to make it. And they had an option on me. By the way, this is when they did options. I remember. So “Coach Carter,” I got a three-picture deal, and for a young actor just trying to get a job, it sounds like the best thing in the world. And then you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, you can just put me in anything you want? ‘And then so they pulled my option, and they’re like, well, you have to do G.I. Joe.”
The actor continued to explain his confusion about the script they had presented to him, with his character Duke being absent for huge chunks and the pressure involved to board the misguided tentpole project, “And I’m like, ‘But the script, like, my character literally disappeared for, like, 30 pages in, like, the end of the second act.’ Like, you know, literally, like, it just wasn’t there. And I’m like, ‘Well, what are we doing about this part?’ Anyway, my managers at the time and I knew that we had to do this. You’ll lose a studio. And, you know, you get scared as a young actor, and you’re like, ‘Okay, well, I guess I’ve got to do it.’ Like, and you go do it.”
Tatum added he isn’t entirely ashamed of the project despite the headache that landed him in it, “It was the experience that it was. I don’t want to talk any sh** because I should be so grateful that it wasn’t some other terrible movie. Like, I don’t know. It could have been worse. Loch Ness Monster, like, you know, 17 or something. You know, it could have been truly anything. But it was a $100 million movie. I should be, you know, happy. And I am happy.”
From the wacky casting of Marlon Wayans as Tatum’s comic-relief pal Rip Cord (felt like the tone was all over the place) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a former U.S. soldier turned global terrorist leader Cobra Commander, to the janky VFX (dated and rushed even for the time) and Snake Eyes’ ridiculous facemask (had a gaping mouth and was subsequently fixed in future films with a more faithful costume) alongside a flat production design that gave the impression the movie wasn’t exactly thought out beyond the tie-in toys.
Tatum’s instinctive rejection of the weak script could easily explain why his return as Duke in Jon M. Chu’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” was relegated to an opening action sequence and his ultimate death as Dwayne Johnson’s Roadblock took over protagonist duties in the sequel, and they beefed up the casting by adding Bruce Willis as the group’s namesake.
Those growing pains didn’t end there, as Henry Golding’s solo “Snake Eyes” movie (an origin film designed to help reboot the franchise with new actors) failed to achieve great box office success. There are reportedly plans to make a crossover pic with characters from “Transformers” and actor Chris Hemsworth (Golding doesn’t believe he’ll be in it).
You can listen to that full chat between Tatum and “Awards Chatter” below.
