G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Director: Stephen Sommers
Release Date: August 7, 2009
Starring: Channing Tatum, Christopher Eccleston, Sienna Miller, Dennis Quaid, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lee Byung-hun
Language: English
Country: United States

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is an live action film adaptation of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy franchise, to be released on August 7, 2009. The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and written by Stuart Beattie. G.I. Joe features an ensemble cast based on the various characters of the franchise. Filming took place in Downey, California and Prague’s Barrandov Studios.

Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) adapts the beloved Hasbro G.I. Joe toy line with this Paramount Pictures production that pits the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity against the evil forces of the organization known as Cobra. Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum star as General Hawk and Duke Hauser, respectively, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marlon Wayans leading the rest of the cast, including Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Asian film star Lee Byung-hun.

Stephen Sommers will direct (here’s hoping he reigns in the CG), from a script by Stuart Beattie. The story is set at Brussels-based GIJOE, an acronym for the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, and revolves around an international co-ed force of operatives who use high-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil org headed by a Scottish arms dealer.

Set ten years in the future, the film is an origin story, showing the rise of the Cobra Organization. Stephen Sommers said, “For people who know nothing about it, it’ll make sense. And to people who love this stuff, it’ll show where they all came from.” The film focuses on Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord’s (Marlon Wayans) induction into the G.I. Joe Team, providing the audience’s point-of-view. Locations include the Arctic, Paris, Moscow, Washington, D.C., Australia and the Sahara. The G.I. Joe Team is based in the Pit, while it was indicated Cobra Island will appear.

Film Cast:

  • Channing Tatum as Conrad Hauser / Duke: The lead soldier. Lorenzo di Bonaventura wanted to cast Mark Wahlberg in the role when the script was not about the origin story, while the studio met with Sam Worthington when it was rewritten by Beattie in its final incarnation. Tatum had played a soldier in Stop-Loss, an anti-war film, and originally wanted no part in G.I. Joe, which he felt glorified war. Once he read the script though, he realized the franchise was a fantasy akin to X-Men, Mission: Impossible and Star Wars rather than a war film.
  • Dennis Quaid as General Clayton Abernathy / Hawk: The team leader. Quaid described Hawk as “a cross between Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naïve Hugh Hefner”. Quaid’s son convinced him to take on the part, and the filmmakers enjoyed working with him so much that Stuart Beattie wrote “ten to fifteen more scenes” for the character. He filmed all his scenes within the first two months of production. Quaid is signed on for two sequels.
  • Rachel Nichols as Shana M. O’Hara / Scarlett: She graduated college at age twelve and became the team’s intelligence expert. Having left school so early, she does not understand men’s attraction to her. Nichols was the first choice for the role. Nichols had dyed her blonde hair red – Scarlett’s hair color – for her role in Star Trek, which she filmed before G.I. Joe.
  • Ray Park as Snake-Eyes: A mute ninja. Like his character, Park is a martial arts expert and specifically practiced wushu for the role, as well as studying the character’s comic book poses.
  • Marlon Wayans as Wallace Weems / Ripcord: He has a crush on Scarlett, which she is oblivious to, and he does not realize she is in a relationship with Snake-Eyes. A fan of the franchise, Wayans was cast on the strength of his performance in Requiem for a Dream. Bonaventura said that film showed Wayans could be serious as well as funny.
  • Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Lamont A. Morris / Heavy Duty: An ordnance expert. Common was offered the role of Heavy Duty’s cousin Roadblock, although Bonaventura previously indicated Heavy Duty was being used in that character’s stead. Stuart Beattie ultimately chose to have Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock.
  • Said Taghmaoui as Alvin R. Kibbey / Breaker: He is the team’s communications specialist.
  • Karolina Kurkova as Courtney A. Kreiger / Cover Girl: Hawk’s aide-de-camp.
  • Christopher Eccleston as James McCullen Destro XXIV / Destro: A weapons designer and founder of the Military Armament Research Syndicate (MARS) and the main villain for the early part of the film. Irish actor David Murray was cast as Destro, but was forced to drop it when he had problems with his visa. Murray was later cast as James McCullen I in a flashback scene.
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander. USA Today reported Cobra Commander is a multiple role. Levitt wore a mask – which was redesigned from the comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan – and prosthetic makeup underneath. Upon seeing concept art of the role he was being offered, Levitt signed on because; “I was like, ‘I get to be that? You’re going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.’ That’s a once-in-lifetime opportunity.” Levitt is a friend of Tatum and they co-starred in Stop-Loss and Havoc. His casting provided extra incentive for Tatum to join the film. Levitt described his vocal performance as being half reminiscent of Chris Latta’s voice for the 1980s cartoon, but also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound ridiculous.
  • Sienna Miller as Baroness Anastasia DeCobray / The Baroness: A spy. Years before the film, the Baroness was going to marry Duke, but he left her at the altar. Miller prepared with four months of weight training, boxing sessions and learned to fire live ammunition, gaining five pounds of muscle.
  • Lee Byung-hun as Storm Shadow / Thomas Arashikage: Snake-Eyes’s nemesis, both were close members of the Arashikage ninja clan. Lee said he did not know G.I. Joe because it is an unknown series in Korea. Sommers and Bonaventura told him not to watch any of the cartoons to prepare for the role. Lee was attracted to Storm Shadow’s “dual personality”, which he stated has “huge pride and honor”.
  • Arnold Vosloo as Zartan: An expert in makeup and disguises serving Destro.

There are scenes involving a ten-year old Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow, with Gerald Okamura as their mentor. Cameos include Larry Hama (as a NATO general in a scene with Duke, Hawk, Destro and Zartan); Kevin J. O’Connor (who had roles in Sommers’s Deep Rising, The Mummy and Van Helsing) as a scientist in a flashback scene; and Brendan Fraser plays a motorcycle-riding sergeant, who is not Gung-Ho as has been rumored, whom he dubbed a “refugee from the Village People”. Fraser claimed the character is a descendant of Rick O’Connell from The Mummy, thus linking both of Sommers’ films. Fraser said that he asked to have a cameo in the film after producer Bob Ducsay told him that the project had been green-lit.

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