*Update From Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura* Sommers Fired From G.I. Joe. Half The Battle Has Been Salvaging The Project.
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By George 'El Guapo' Roush on
June 11, 2009
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**UPDATE BELOW**
Over on Don Murphy's message boards, forum poster Endtimes chimes in on what really happened before, during and after the production of G.I. Joe:
So the story goes like this-
after a test screening wherein the film tested the lowest score ever from an audience in the history of Paramount, the executive who pushed for the movie Brad Weston had Stephen Sommers, the super hack director of the film fired. Removed. Locked out of the editing room.
Stuart Baird, a renowned "fixer" editor was brought it to try to see if it could be made releasable. Meanwhile producer Lorenzo whose turkey IMAGINE THAT explodes this weekend as the new bomb in theatres (also championed by Weston) was told his services were no longer needed on the film either.
Sommers was then forced by his William Morris agents to pretend that he was working on Tarzan over at Warner Brothers doing design work, even though that film doesn't even have a good script yet. When word of the firing started to be whispered about in Hollywood, Sommers was summoned back to the editing room- but only to save appearances, Baird is still editing the movie with studio input.
Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who turned down other offers from the property to go with the script that was rushed in 8 weeks by Stuart Beattie because of the writer's strike is frantic that this will destroy the brand and is distancing himself from the pending catastophe.
NONE of this needed to happen, except someone who did not know the mythology, Lorenzo was in charge of the film and never contradicted Sommers on anything. Lorenzo, so you know, was Chairman of Warners and had GI JOE under option there (not as a producer) for SEVEN years and he refused to greenlight the film, stating that because he gre up in Italy he had no knowledge of it. If you google enough, at one point you will see he wanted the film to be about an action hero named MANN (Action Man, get it) and he clearly had no clue what the GI Joe world really was.
And the hapless hack Sommers? Where did he come from? The confused Jon Fogelman at William Morris, who signed Hasbro away from CAA, had to find a director in a hurry for his new clients and gave him the only guy who he repped who would do it. A sad end to what COULD have been a great franchise. Acceleration suits indeed.
One thing that isn't true is the movie not tracking well. It's actually tracking very well which is great.
You don't need to Google far for the Action Man bit since I was the one who got the exclusive and interviewed Lorenzo when he first brought it to everyone's attention about Action Man possibly being in the film. (Although heaven forbid anyone link to me.)
I've heard through various sources that this story is true. That the film has had problems. But that's what happens when you put people on a project they know nothing about.
Still, it's a movie I'm looking forward to seeing. Minus the dipshit accelerator suits, I'm kind of psyched to see G.I. Joe. I've been to the set and it was pretty bad ass. I'm just hoping it isn't the train wreck everyone is making it out to be. Yes, the movie is geared towards the 10-12 year old crowd, but isn't that how old most of us were that were into G.I. Joe in the first place? Somehow we liked it back then and the cartoon is pretty damn goofy if you watch it again as an adult. What is it you're expecting? A live action Shipwreck to run around firing a laser gun with a fucking parrot on his shoulder?
What sucks is everyone posting how bad this film is when they've never seen it, which is typical internet bullshit when you're able to safely hide behind the anonymity of your keyboard. You can certainly say a film looks bad, and that you hate the director, etc. etc., but to say the film actually is bad based off a trailer and some TV spots? C'mon guys. Wait until the film is out, you've seen it with your own two eyes, then state your opinion.
In the meantime, do what I do - make fun of those stupid fucking accelerator suits.
**UPDATE**
Latinoreview wanted to get to the bottom of this so we spoke directly with Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about this whole firing mess and here's what he had to say:
Lorenzo: It's very unfair to Steve, it's completely untrue he was never asked to leave or been fired or any of that. That’s ridiculous. The movie tested very well.
I hear it tested as good as the first Transformers.
Lorenzo: Well listen, we tested very well and I don’t compare the movies because they are different movies, but you know I think its really destructive for a director…It hurts a guy's career when people go around talking about that he was fired or he didn’t do a good job and truth is he did a really good job. People are going to enjoy the movie and the test audiences enjoyed the movie.
He did a very good job the movie tested well and it couldn’t be more false that the studio in anyway did anything negatively to Steve.
So what really happened in the editing room?
Lorenzo: Nothing that doesn’t happen on every other movie, which is that you constantly work and work and work and you make it better and better. We had a delay on visual effects so we waited a long time to finish the movie but that’s the only thing. I don’t really know why that would be interpreting it negatively but I guess it was.
In regards to the testing the film has had so far:
Lorenzo: Everybody was happy, the studio was happy, the filmmakers were happy, the audience was happy with the movie. We had three test screenings, three different times and tested it and each time it just got better and better. We started off in a good place and we ended up in even in a better place, which is what you hope on a film from testing it.
So there you go. Straight from Lorenzo as he debunks the firing story. Like I said, I've heard from my sources that the film was tracking well. We've stuck up for this film from the get go. Why? Because we're fans of G.I. Joe. And I've mentioned on Twitter and here numerous times that I think the movie looks kick ass.
Update - Our own El Mayimbe has been away from his computer all day, but his phone has been blowing up like mad. He did have this to add from Twitter:
elmayimbe GIJOE update from Gracie Mansion: don't belive the hype folks. Stephen Sommers has final cut. 100% confirmed. Trust me. No spin, just fact.
All I know is fans want a good G.I. Joe movie despite the Hollywood politics. We'll find out when it hits theaters on August 7th.
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Tags: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, News |
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