“In Hollywood, you just kind of fail upwards.”
While I might not be as big of a fan of Kevin Smith than I was when I was fifteen or so, I still smirk whenever I think of that quote from his first Evening With Kevin Smith DVD about how some people in the film industry end up in a better position despite making awful movies.
Which I think describes the career of Jon M. Chu: after directing the first two Step Up movies and the Justin Bieber documentary Never Say Never, someone at Paramount thought he’d be perfect as the director of G.I. Joe: Retaliation. How they came to that conclusion is unknown. What is known is that G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which was supposed to open a month ago, was pushed back nearly a year for reshoots and a 3D conversion, something that suggests Chu might not have done the greatest job on the film.
But true to Smith’s quote, Chu seems to be moving on to bigger things: Deadline reports that Chu is in “talks” with Sony to direct another film based on a toy franchise, Masters of the Universe (more commonly known as He-Man). For those of you too young to remember, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a kiddie-Conan, a 1980s Mattel action figure line and cartoon series involving the noble hero He-Man battling the forces of the evil Skeletor to save the land of Eternia. It was pretty awesome, way more awesome than the 1987 movie starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella, which really didn’t have much to do with the actual concept.
I’m really hoping G.I. Joe: Retaliation ends up being a good, fun flick, but regardless I think it’s a bit early for Sony to give the He-Man reigns to Chu. He’s yet to prove himself as a director of these sort of films (i.e. films that don’t involve dancing).
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