Paramount’s origin story/reboot/spin-off film ‘G.I. Joe – Snake Eyes’ now has two more actors onboard the cast! Samara Weaving will play Scarlett, the red-haired counter-intelligence officer, as well as the first female member of the G.I. Joe team. Takehiro Hira (‘Ace Attorney,’ ‘CSI: Crime Scene Talks’) has an undisclosed role. The studio is pivoting to ‘Snake Eyes’ before moving forward (again) with a third mainline ‘G.I. Joe’ film.
Weaving was recently in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett’s ‘Ready or Not.’ Other credits include McG’s ‘The Babysitter,’ Martin McDonagh’s ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,’ and the Starz series ‘Ash vs Evil Dead.’ Next, she will appear in Dean Parisot’s ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music,’ releasing August 21, 2020.
Henry Golding (‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘A Simple Favor’) will play the titular character. Andrew Koji (‘American Gods,’ ‘Warrior’) will portray Storm Shadow. The characters Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are best friends who eventually become enemies.
Also, Iko Uwais, the lead of ‘Wu Assassins’ and both ‘The Raid’ films, will portray Hard Master, the tough as nails teacher of Snake Eyes, who is also a skilled sword master. ‘Money Heist’s Úrsula Corberó is playing The Baroness, Cobra’s intelligence officer and lieutenant to Cobra Commander. Haruka Abe (’47 Ronin,’ ‘Emerald City’) has an unknown role as well.
Moreover, some plot details for the film are below:
“When we meet this new, younger Snake Eyes (Golding), it’ll be as a street fighter in Peru. Driven by the desire to avenge the death of his father, Snake Eyes is a man on the move until he ends up in Japan, where he and his best friend, Tommy, aka Storm Shadow (Koji), will begin their training with the Arashikage Clan. The film will see at least three of the clan’s legendary masters as they train Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow as Hard Master (Uwais), Soft Master and Blind Master are all set to appear. Also present at the Arashikage compound is the film’s female lead, Akita. In comic continuity, Junko Akita was an apprentice and lover of Storm Shadow; here she is the head of security and will be a love interest for Snake Eyes.”
The role of Snake Eyes needed to be recast, due to the fact that the original actor, Ray Park, is too old to be playing a younger version of the character. Thus, other recasts followed, including Storm Shadow, Byung-Hun Lee, in ‘The Rise of Cobra’ and ‘Retaliation,’ and now Scarlett, Rachel Nichols in ‘The Rise of Cobra.’
Meanwhile, Robert Schwentke (‘RED,’ ‘Insurgent’) serves as director. 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.”
Additionally, the crew members, so far, comprise of cinematographer Bojan Bazelli (‘Pete’s Dragon,’ ‘A Cure for Wellness’), special effects supervisor Joel Whist (‘War for the Planet of the Apes,’ ‘Altered Carbon’), and supervising art director Michael Diner (‘The Revenant,’ ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’).
Further, filming should begin tomorrow and wrap December 9th. Shooting locations include Tokyo, Japan, the major setting of the film, and Vancouver, Canada.
Paramount will release the film on October 16, 2020.