It looks like there’s going to be a change of personnel for the G.I. Joe sequel, with strong rumours suggesting that Stephen Sommers won’t be returning to direct…
As Paramount pushes ahead with a sequel to its pretty mediocre, yet successful, G.I. Joe movie, it's looking almost certain that there's going to be a new face in the director's chair for the sequel.
Paramount has already given a signal of its intent with the film, by bringing in Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to pen the new film. But it had been looking likely that Stephen Sommers, who helmed the first film, would be back for the follow-up. That was in spite of tittle-tattle of unrest and unhappiness on the set of the first film, and the unimpressed critical response to the movie.
Still, if every director lost their job over rumours of set problems and a mauling from the critics, there might not be too many of them left working.
Nonetheless, with big movies of this ilk increasingly attracting more interesting directors (latest example: Darren Aronofsky helming The Wolverine), we don't see too many Internet campaigns being drummed up to protest the strong current rumour that Stephen Sommers is off G.I. Joe 2.
The news has been broken by the Los Angeles Times, which reports that "Two agents who represent other filmmakers have said they'd recently been approached about their clients coming on to helm the movie and were told that Sommers would not be getting behind the camera. Paramount declined to comment."
Thus, while there's been no official word, it's looking very likely that when G.I. Joe 2 heads into production, possibly by the end of the year, that there'll be another director calling the shots.
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