Danny McBride To Direct New ‘G.I. Joe’ Film, Bradley Cooper Rumored For Role

Well, it looks like funny man Danny McBride‘s “G.I. Joe” movie is coming together in a big way! After it was revealed he would be writing a new script for the Paramount Pictures military action-adventure franchise, he’s now set to also direct the untitled film as well. A huge win for fans as McBride’s work on HBO has been some of the best modern comedies on the cable network with “Eastbound & Down,” “Vice Principals,” and “The Righteous Gemstones.”

THR and other trade outlets have revealed that McBride would be settling into the director’s chair for the latest “G.I. Joe” installment, and we shouldn’t be entirely shocked if he ends up taking part in a supporting role. It makes sense you’d get the guy who has been in films over the years, such as Ridley Scott‘s “Alien: Covenant” (spoiler, ended up surviving those events and might have returned for the never-made third film), took a co-lead part in the fantasy stoner comedy “Your Highness” helmed by David Gordon Green, “Pineapple Express,” “Tropic Thunder,” and the hit Netflix animated movie, “The Mitchells vs. The Machines.”

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He co-created “Eastbound & Down,” also worked on the script for “Your Highness,” co-wrote/starred in Jody Hill‘s “Fist Foot Way,” and McBride’s screenwriting credits go beyond comedy as he helmed Blumhouse/Universal with their “Halloween” legacy sequels (also has story credit on “Exorcist: Believer“), co-writing the trilogy of films, so he’s already has experience helping studios attempt to resurrect their established IP. However, his directing credits are limited to “Vice Principals” and “The Righteous Gemstones,” shows he also wrote on and co-created.

The Joes are an American-based global special forces team that is assembled with advanced weapons, vehicles, and gadgets to defeat the terrorist group known as COBRA (not every team member is American, mind you). An expansive toyline (still popular today and goes back to 1964) that had a craze in the 1980s and a cartoon series debuted in 1983, and it also got an animated feature film back in 1987.

There is also a rumbling from the folks over at Nexus Point News that Bradley Cooper might be circling the project as he’s being “eyed” as a potential replacement for Chris Hemsworth (had been linked for years for a new franchise role, possibly for the lesser-known Joe, Chuckles). The Cooper connection to McBride goes back to “The Righteous Gemstones,” where he did a brief cameo in the hilarious preacher satire as an ancestor from the Civil War era who got into the religion business to avoid a military firing squad. They also worked together on the 2015 Cameron Crowe-directed movie “Aloha.” Cooper wouldn’t be new to the action genre after the feature reboot of “A-Team” and playing a Navy SEAL sniper in Clint Eastwood‘s box office hit, “American Sniper.” We don’t know if he’ll ultimately sign on as he’s currently busy directing and starring in a new prequel film for Warner Bros. that is set in the universe of “Ocean’s 11,” said to focus on Danny Ocean’s parents.

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In 2021, Paramount tried to do a franchise reset of sorts with the Henry Gold origin film “Snake Eyes,” but sequel/follow-up plans seem to have vanished when the movie didn’t make a splash with audiences as originally intended (hard to imagine this new take will be made without the silent but skilled team member). Before that movie, Jon M. Chu attempted to do a soft reboot by adding Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis to the roster in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” (McBride’s longtime co-star on the HBO shows, Walton Goggins, had a minor role in it), only for them to essentially bump off Channing Tatum‘s Duke in that one (another pal of McBride and had been the main lead of “The Rise of Cobra“).

We don’t have a concrete production start date for “G.I. Joe,” but Danny McBride was hopeful to get the cameras rolling next year. Also, there had been studio plans for a crossover between the IP and “Transformers,” unclear if this will be that movie or not.