Speaking with Slash Film, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura gave an update on the next installment in the ‘G.I Joe’ franchise. The origin story/reboot/spin-off film ‘Snake Eyes’ is currently eyeing a late summer or early fall production start.
Potential filming locations include various places in Japan, which serves as the major setting of the film, as well as Vancouver and Los Angeles.
The full segment with Di Bonaventura is below:
Slash Film: “When does Snake Eyes start?”
Di Bonaventura: “We probably start late summer, early fall.”
Slash Film: “Are you going to be able to keep him silent as the star of a film?”
Di Bonaventura: [laughs] “I’m not going to spoil that one. I will say this. Part of the opportunity of going back is to discover who is this guy. For me, I’m most interested in seeing it as an origin story. If you see it as an origin story, you do get to see him speak for X period of time.”
Paramount decided to pivot to ‘Snake Eyes’ before moving forward (again) with a third mainline ‘G.I. Joe’ film.
The role of Snake Eyes will be recast, due to the fact Ray Park is too old to be playing a younger version of the character.
Robert Schwentke (‘RED,’ ‘Insurgent’) serves as director, while the screenplay is from Evan Spiliotopoulos (‘Beauty and The Beast, Death Note 2’).
Spiliotopoulos previously gave a comment regarding the classic action-martial arts tone of the film:
“Our vision is if it was a Hong Kong movie of the ’70s directed by Akira Kurosawa. I wish I could get into story but that’s the idea of going back to a rough-and-tumble, you know, Bruce Lee movie but directed by one of the greatest Japanese filmmakers of all-time.”
Meanwhile, there is no official release date for ‘Snake Eyes’ as of now. However, the movie might take the March 27, 2020 date, which is currently held by the previous attempt at a third film ‘G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant.’
Source: Slash Film