Stephen Sommers Won’t Direct ‘G.I. Joe 2’

I saw G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with my older brother the weekend it came out, not because we expected it to be a good movie, but because the two of us grew up watching the 80’s G.I. Joe cartoon and collected damn near every action figure. And while G.I. Joe wasn’t a terrible film, it wasn’t all that good either. I don’t know how much of that can be blamed on the director, Stephen Sommers, but the Los Angeles Times reports that Sommers will NOT be returning to direct the planned sequel. Click on “more” to check out my thoughts on this and more information on the upcoming film.

Frankly Stephen Sommers is one of those directors that doesn’t make horrible films, but I’ve never seen a film from him that I personally thought was “excellent.” Probably the closest he’s come is his original Mummy film, but it certainly isn’t much more than a poor man’s Indiana Jones. So I’m not as troubled about Sommers not returning to direct G.I. Joe 2 than I am about, say, Jon Favreau not returning to direct Iron Man 3. All I hope is that whoever is chosen finds a way to work Sgt. Slaughter into the film!

No names have been brought up to possibly replace Sommers, but one great piece of news is the script for the film is being written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Zombieland. Zombieland was one of the biggest surprises of 2009, and one of its strengthens was its script. That’s something to look forward to!

The as-yet untitled G.I. Joe sequel is penciled in for a 2012 release, but there’s a long way to go until then. Well readers, who do you think would be a good choice to direct the Real American Heroes?