Stephen Sommers won’t dress for battle on ‘G.I. Joe’ sequel
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EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Sommers was a divisive choice to direct ‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra,’ the 2009 movie that became a global hit despite lukewarm reviews (and prompted Sommers to offer some, er, words of his own to critics).
Those who were on the fence about the filmmaker can unhook themselves: After reports this summer that Sommers would be returning to direct a planned sequel, it looks like he won’t be doing that after all.
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.
Sommers, best known for directing ‘The Mummy’ and ‘The Mummy Returns,’ was the subject of whispers about problems on the set of the first film but seemed to put them to rest with the news that he would direct the sequel. The filmmaker has a ‘Tarzan’ reboot in development but no movie that’s ready to shoot imminently.
The 2009 ‘G.I. Joe,’ which starred Channing Tatum as soldier Duke Hauser and Dennis Quaid as team commander Gen. Hawk, tied up many loose ends but left some avenues open for a sequel. The project had heartened fans when Rhett Rheese and Paul Wernick, the writers on hit ‘Zombieland,’ came on to pen a draft of the G.I. Joe sequel a year ago.
— Steven Zeitchik
