Apparently the admirably goofy “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” made enough money that Paramount and Hasbro are going back to the based-on-a-line-of-popular-action-figures well one more time; they’ve just hired Evan Daugherty, the screenwriter behind last summer’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” to pen “G.I. Joe 3.” Paramount was impressed with the work Daugherty did getting their “Ninja Turtles” screenplay into fighting shape (sorry, couldn’t resist). ‘Retaliation’ director Jon M. Chu returns as director. As of now, a silly subtitle has yet to be decided on.
After graduating from NYU Film School, Daugherty wrote nine screenplays before finally breaking through with a script called “Shrapnel.” The screenplay, which ran a brisk 92 pages, was set during the Vietnam War and pitted a beleaguered World War II vet against a younger killer in a hard fight for survival. The script put the writer on people’s radar and garnered the attention of John McTiernan, who personally flew himself to Robert De Niro to get him interested in the role. Of course, McTiernan ended up going to jail and the script languished (it was later made and released this year as “Killing Season,” bearing little resemblance to the original script), but in the meantime, Daugherty sold his “Snow White and the Huntsman” script to Universal for $1.5 million and subsequently worked on potential YA franchise-starter “Divergent.”
Chu has a background in choreography and dance, having helmed “Step Up 2: The Streets” and “Step Up 3D” (as well as the concert movie “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never“). While we were pretty impressed with “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” in particular with its sense of humor and the large-scale, mountainside ninja battle, we would love to see Chu’s background in choreography come across more in the next film, with action sequences shot and edited with long, fluid shots that are evocative of his past work.
The question is, of course, who will be back, since the last film killed off many of the characters from the first film (including Channing Tatum) and introduced several new ones. We wonder if they will be able to lure Bruce Willis back, who had a brief role in the sequel, especially since his dance card is filling up fast. In fact, just this week he signed on to action thriller “The Prince.” The man is always in demand. But then again, it’s hard to say no to ‘Joe.’
There are no release dates in play yet, but considering how every other fucking movie is coming out in 2015, “G.I. Joe 3” might as well come out then.