The lack of news on a director for Danny McBride’s GI Joe movie should’ve been the tip-off. McBride had been hired to write the screenplay, but now it’s being confirmed that it will also mark his feature directorial debut. The news comes just hours after Bradley Cooper was rumored for the starring role.
McBride’s directing experience has mostly been in television on episodes of his HBO shows, The Righteous Gemstones and Eastbound & Down. He has written for the big screen quite a lot, though, including on cult favorite comedy The Foot Fist Way.
Plot details for GI Joe remain under wraps. It will be a fresh take on the Hasbro action figure line and animated series, with no connection to the previous movies. There have been three live-action films prior to this: 2009’s GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, 2013’s GI Joe: Retaliation, and 2021’s Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins starring Henry Golding.
McBride’s screenplay was chosen by Paramount over a competing script written by Max Landis. With McBride in place as director, we could see GI Joe go into production later this year. [Deadline]
