G.I. Joe: Retaliation

[Guest jonogunn]

can't believe they are delaying this movie that long for stupid 3D. 3D sucks!!!

And rubbie, are you really THAT big of a GI Joe fan? You update with crazy amount of content everyday!

[rubie]

can't believe they are delaying this movie that long for stupid 3D. 3D sucks!!!

And rubie, are you really THAT big of a GI Joe fan? You update with crazy amount of content everyday!

LOL, nope.. not a big fan of GI Joe, I'm not that familiar with the comic & all things Joe .. but I am an ardent Lee Byung Hun fan. There are a lot more English updates on GI Joe as opposed to his Korean movies & activities. So, a small part on my behalf to update the movie thread that has the actor's involvement. That's all! ^^

But it indeed suck to have an already fully-promoted movie pushed back almost a year.. and to do it all over again later.

[rubie]

May 29, 2012

Deadline elaborates on potential reasons for G.I. Joe: Retaliation delay

Source: generalsjoes.com

We’ve heard it from a number of different sources, and the story is starting to become more and more clear, and now industry insider Nikke Finke has spoken up on Deadline.com about the delay for G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

The story is starting to sound familiar.

Yes, according to Ms. Finke, the reasons behind the G.I. Joe: Retaliation delay were much more than simply a conversion to 3D or “bad screenings”. Sure, those played a part, but there were also other elements at work, too. According to Paramount insiders, the screening response wasn’t so much that the film was bad, it was more centered around the fact that Roadblock and Duke didn’t really establish a great friendship and that Duke died way too early in the film. There were also responses to the screening that asked why there was a lack of 3D in the first place.

Combining this with earlier talk that both John Carter of Mars and Battleship tanked domestically, Paramount became skittish of the surrounding competition, and elected to vacate to safer territory. The interesting note to all of this is not just that both John Carter and Battleship did much better internationally (which they both did), but that the big draw internationally was the 3D in both films.

This is the full context of what the Paramount source had to say:

“This was a case of letting a schedule to fill a summer slot dictate the film not being in 3D even though we knew that would be the most commercial version of the film. Then in the spring there were 2 big events. First John Carter lost $200M despite the best efforts of the Pixar brain trust. But the 3D film managed to gross over $200M overseas, nearly tripling its U.S. take.

“Also Channing Tatum had a breakout spring, starring in The Vow and 21 Jump Street. In our first screening of the film the reaction from audiences was good but with 2 big concerns: 1) They didn’t like the fact that Channing and The Rock really didn’t have any time to develop a friendship before Channing died, and 2) Why wasn’t it going to be in 3D? We went back and shot another week with Channing to develop more of his story with The Rock, which made the film play much better. But we didn’t have the time to be in 3D.

“Then a week ago Battleship basically had the same performance as John Carter – $60M-$70M U.S. and just over $200M international. That was just a wake-up call that said to us we need to offer the best version of the film irrespective of summer market share to ensure the best possible performance. And not being in 3D will cost us a ton of business internationally.”

I think it’s fair to say, now that we’ve heard from a number of industry sources that this is probably the prevailing wisdom behind the news. It’s not nearly the “doom and gloom” that many people fear in regards to the film’s quality, it was mostly a combination of different things that led us to this. Where we go from here is the important next step.

I will say, I haven’t seen this many industry folks talk about the G.I. Joe film franchise in the past, perhaps all of this visible conversation is good for the film in the long run? Maybe it will spark interest from some people and put it more on the “Hollywood Radar”. Along with Deadline.com, the Hollywood Reporter is also chiming in with their own analysis, that puts a bit of a more sinister focus on it, but is still talking about the film. Time will tell.

[rubie]

May 29, 2012

Big Problems Behind 'G.I. Joe 2's Big Delay

By NIKKI FINKE Deadline.com

EXCLUSIVE: Ever since I scooped the news a week ago about G.I. Joe: Retaliation moving from June 29th to March 29th, 2013, no one was buying Paramount‘s excuse that “adding 3D” was the only reason for the 9 month delay. Least of all me. So I did some snooping. And what I found out shows the difficult decisions which Hollywood moguls are facing in this challenging box office environment when even franchises aren’t sure things. (Witness last weekend’s Men In Black 3.) And at what point and at what cost do the top execs make changes in their films already shooting or in post-production or even five weeks out from release in order to head off a disaster?

Hollywood was gobsmacked that Paramount vacated the primo date this summer, especially because the studio blew a wad on a Super Bowl commercial and already was starting TV and outdoor ads for GI Joe 2. Not to mention the toys, warehouses full of them, ready and waiting. But the fact is that Paramount became extremely concerned about G.I. Joe 2‘s box office prospects worldwide after its test scores were mediocre to bad. Reshoots were needed. Plus, the moguls realized what a complete miscalculation it was to kill off Channing Tatum in the sequel. And even more so at the start of the film. You will remember that Tatum wasn’t a star when the first G.I. Joe was released. But since then his back-to-back successes in The Vow and 21 Jump Street have made him into a draw. And it turned out that the only bright spot for audiences as a result of the G.I. Joe 2 testing was the aborted relationship between Tatum and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Plus look at the movie poster for Retaliation: you wouldn’t even know Tatum is in the sequel. Now the movie is being reworked — and reshoots don’t lose a valuable leading man like Tatum by killing him off. “The 3D is an excuse as to not reveal the Tatum of it all,” one of my sources tells me. Of course this June Tatum appears in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike as a stripper (inspired by Tatum’s own experiences, pre-stardom). My sources insist Paramount didn’t want uniformed Channing to compete with stripping Channing on the same weekend. Not with those abs.

Here is how Paramount insiders explain to me what happened. And clearly it’s not just because “We’re going to do a conscientious 3D job because we’ve seen how it can better box office internationally” now that Russia and China are building new 3D theaters by the week, as the studio said a week ago:

“This was a case of letting a schedule to fill a summer slot dictate the film not being in 3D even though we knew that would be the most commercial version of the film. Then in the spring there were 2 big events. First John Carter lost $200M despite the best efforts of the Pixar brain trust. But the 3D film managed to gross over $200M overseas, nearly tripling its U.S. take.

“Also Channing Tatum had a breakout spring, starring in The Vow and 21 Jump Street. In our first screening of the film the reaction from audiences was good but with 2 big concerns: 1) They didn’t like the fact that Channing and The Rock really didn’t have any time to develop a friendship before Channing died, and 2) Why wasn’t it going to be in 3D? We went back and shot another week with Channing to develop more of his story with The Rock, which made the film play much better. But we didn’t have the time to be in 3D.

“Then a week ago Battleship basically had the same performance as John Carter – $60M-$70M U.S. and just over $200M international. That was just a wake-up call that said to us we need to offer the best version of the film irrespective of summer market share to ensure the best possible performance. And not being in 3D will cost us a ton of business internationally.”

But the big question is how much this deliberate delay of G.I. Joe 2‘s release will affect the pic’s cost. After all, the cost of MIB3 soared when the time travel elements of Etan Cohen’s script had to be re-worked by Jeff Nathanson who needed more time to pull off the tricky plot device while Cohen worked on another project. So the film shut down for about six weeks, which is a rarity for a major tentpole, and then Cohen came back to finish the movie. That caused the cost to skyrocket from a range of $225M (which is what Sony claims as the budget) to $300M (which is what rival studios say it really was). Between that and all the gross profit participants, that’s a lot of coin before Sony sees profit. Of course, Paramount had to talk its partners on GI Joe 2 into the extra nine months of carrying costs – MGM, which has 25%, and David Ellison’s Skydance, which has another 25%. Paramount sources claim to me that the budget for the $125M-budgeted actioner is stll under control. I’m not sure I believe their claim that the changes will result in just $5M more:

“Several 3D houses had already approached us about doing the film in 3D. This move gives us the time to do it right. We are having conversations with Stereo D and Prime Focus about doing the 3D work for a reduced fee in exchange for a piece of 3D upside. Also, interest rates are very low right now. So 9 months does not have a huge impact on budget. It should stay under $130M.”

Meanwhile, other sources tell Deadline that G.I. Joe 2 director Jon M. Chu is “shellshocked” over the release date move. Paramount kept him on a very tight leash from the beginning of the production. Among other things, they wouldn’t let him bring onboard David Nicksay, who has worked with Chu as executive producer on the Step Up movies and the Justin Bieber documentary. Even The Rock felt forced to calm fan fears about the film like in this Twitter exchange on May 23rd when the delay announcement came down: DwayneJohnson ‏@TheRock It will be. Designing new scenes to enhance 3D. RT: @JimmyinGA: Was looking forward to GI Joe next month. Hope the 3D is worth the wait.

True, Paramount had luck delaying Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island to give the director his biggest box office hit ever. Now the question is whether lightning can strike twice.

[rubie]

May 29, 2012

THE REAL STORY ON THE 'GI JOE: RETALIATION' DATE CHANGE

By UNCANNYSHAWNMADDEN geekscape.net

So, a few days back I reported on ‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ being pushed back and it looks like there’s more than meets the eye here. Wait… wrong franchise. Moving along. We were all told it was so that they could go 3D to pull in a higher international gross. But from the get go there was plenty of people not buying it. Most were positive it was due to ‘Battleship’ sinking and a fear that they would not be able to compete with ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ coming out four days later. Some speculated it was to try and pull in Joseph Gordon Levitt after realizing that once ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ hits… well he’s going to be bigger than he already is.

Well… according to Deadline you were all wrong. Apparently after test screenings Paramount realized they had made some mistakes. Primarily… killing off Channing Tatum. Yeah… they killed him off. Crying fan boys on the internet ACTUALLY got something they wanted and guess what? It turned out bad. Who would’ve thought? Tatum wasn’t a star at all when ‘GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra’ came out. But after he became a ladies favorite with ‘The Vow’ and had one of the most successful comedies of the year with ’21 Jump Street’ they realized a mistake had been made. It became even more apparent when test audiences commented that the relationship between Tatum and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was a “bright spot”.

Sources stated that Jon Chu was “shell shocked” over the release date move. As was Hollywood due to all the money spent on marketing the flick for that date being plastered all over.

Will this affect people going to see it? Probably not. Can this possibly improve the film? I think so. I actually like Channing Tatum (I’m sure now the fan boys shall unite and burn me at the stake) And Ray Park seemed very confident in this movie when I spoke with him at Wondercon. So… lets hope for the best. And look… it just means you can go see ‘Prometheus’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘Ted’ five more times.

‘GI Joe: Retaliation’ strikes March 29, 2013

The Real Reasons Paramount Bumped 'G.I. Joe 2' to 2013 (Analysis)

by Kim Masters THR

Brutal competition, fears of a "Battleship" sinking and 3D reshoots (with a resurrected Channing Tatum?) leave a studio's cupboard bare.

This story first appeared in the June 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

When Paramount announced May 23 that it was moving G.I. Joe: Retaliation from its June 29 release date to March 2013, nostrils started to quiver throughout the industry.

The explanation the studio was selling — that it needed time to turn the sequel into a 3D spectacle — didn’t seem to pass the smell test. Why bump a $125 million-budgeted tentpole starring Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis five weeks before its scheduled release after launching a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign that included a pricey Super Bowl spot?

“They eat all of that money,” notes one prominent producer. “And when you yank a movie at the last minute, it does not send an encouraging signal.”

Paramount sources say studio chair Brad Grey and vice chair Rob Moore felt the expense was preferable to a duel with Sony’s Spider-Man reboot, out July 3.

“They looked at the landscape and realized they couldn’t compete,” agrees the producer in an appraisal shared by many executives and agents. Add to that the sinking of Universal’s $200 million-plus Battleship — another film based on a Hasbro property — and the potential downside looked especially distressing. So Paramount is adding 3D in hope of bolstering overseas box office and taking the opportunity to expand the role of Channing Tatum, whose stardom has grown thanks to The Vow and 21 Jump Street. In fact, Tatum’s character originally died in Retaliation, but it’s now possible he will be resurrected.

More broadly, Paramount has decided to sit out the season after a brutal few months in which potential franchises -- Disney's John Carter, Universal's Battleship, Warner Bros.' Dark Shadows -- turned into losses. Many suspect Sony's Men in Black 3 also will lose money due to its soaring cost associated with a troubled production. (Some think Paramount’s top executives might also have an eye on their bonuses, deferring costs to polish up results for the current fiscal year. Paramount declined comment.)

Whatever the reason, Paramount’s decision to move G.I. Joe signals a big shift for the studio: It also bumped the Brad Pitt zombie tentpole World War Z — a film with a budget of $150 million or more that is said to be facing several weeks of costly reshoots — from December to June 2013. The studio also moved the action-adventure Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters from March 2012 to January 2013, ostensibly to allow star Jeremy Renner to bolster his name value with The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy.

At this point, the studio's summer slate has only a Katy Perry concert movie (July 5) and distribution fees from Madagascar 3 (June 8). And the latter might be one of the last films from DreamWorks Animation to be released by Paramount as the two have been at an impasse over distribution fees. (Of course, any troubles at Paramount might well strengthen the hand of DWA’s Jeffrey Katzenberg in a negotiation. Insiders are speculating that DWA will strike a deal with Sony Pictures or self-distribute domestically and make a deal with Fox for overseas distribution.)

Toward year’s end, the picture appears to brighten for Paramount. The studio has the fourth Paranormal Activity in October and the November thriller Flight with Denzel Washington, director Robert Zemeckis' first live-action film in more than a decade. At Christmas, it has a Tom Cruise thriller, Jack Reacher, and then The Guilt Trip, a comedy with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand.

But overall, the studio is looking at a sparse year. In March, it dumped Eddie Murphy’s A Thousand Words in theaters, and in May it stumbled with The Dictator, which sources say cost about $100 million, though the studio pegs it at $65 million. The Sacha Baron Cohen film has grossed an underwhelming $93 million worldwide so far.

The idea that Paramount might be hitting turbulence after several years of flying high actually cheers some who feel the studio has relied on hits provided by outsiders — notably Marvel and DWA — while showing less interest in nurturing its own product.

“They are impossible to do business with,” says a prominent player. “They spend less money on movies than anybody; they develop fewer movies than anybody.”

The haters don’t even credit the current regime for its hits: They point out that the Transformers franchise was hatched by live-action DreamWorks and Mission: Impossible predated the current bosses. Still, the Mission and Star Trek franchises have been re-ignited, and if Paramount’s G.I. Joe strategy works, 3D could boost its overseas haul by as much as 30 percent. But for now, Paramount’s recent boasts about market share — a dubious measure of success yet one that studios like to brag about — are over. So far, analysts are largely unfazed, with Stifel Nicolaus saying that moving G. I. Joe “adds to a much stronger slate in full-year 2013 for Viacom [with] limited impact on full-year 2012 results.”

One industry veteran agrees the real impact of a weak 2012 won’t be apparent in the current fiscal year’s results. Paramount will receive a hefty 8 percent fee from Disney on The Avengers (part of the deal when Disney bought out Paramount’s interest), and the studio is still benefiting from its 2011 hits. He predicts, “The bad news will come next year.”

Borys Kit contributed to this report.

[rubie]

May 30, 2012

Paramount's decision to move 'G.I Joe Retaliation' could be a no-win for the studio

AS THEIR COVER STORY CRUMBLES, A PICTURE OF A TROUBLED PRODUCTION EMERGES

By Drew McWeeny hitfix.com

Walk down the aisle of a grocery store, and you'll see products with the "G.I. Joe Retaliation" logo slapped on them. Hit the right toy store that didn't get the memo, and you'll see "G.I. Joe Retaliation" toys on the shelves. Drive around LA, and you'll see plenty of outdoor posters for the film. It looks like Paramount's got their sequel to the live-action "Rise Of Cobra" ready to go and on its way to theaters on June 29th.

That's not true, though. They've pushed the film to a March 29th, 2013 release, and the reason they gave last week when details started to break was that they wanted to make sure they had time to give the film a good 3D post-conversion.

This week, though, that cover story is starting to collapse, and a very different picture is emerging of a film in trouble, a director being pushed aside, and reshoots designed to radically alter the fate of at least one character. In an age where even the smallest details on a film seem to be known months ahead of release, I'm not sure how Paramount thought they were going to get away with a cover story as simple as "We like 3D," but it's apparent that they're going to have to contend with months of tough buzz instead, and their decision to move the film could be make or break and worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a studio that can't afford to throw away any money right now.

At the start of this year, I don't think anyone could have predicted that killing off Channing Tatum early in the film would be an issue for the studio. That was before "The Vow" and "21 Jump Street" and "Haywire" revealed a new onscreen comfort and audiences responded enthusiastically. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the studio would want to take advantage of this new-found love of Tatum, and nine months is plenty of time to script and reshoot some new sequences that put Tatum and Dwayne Johnson together.

We've been hearing reports of rough test screenings for the film, but things are starting to get genuinely contentious between director Jon Chu and the studio, and right now, there is a chance he won't be directly involved at all with the reshoots. There's also a chance Chu might try to legally force his way back onto the film, which could create even more strain in the relationship he has with Paramount. Word is that producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is firmly on Chu's side, which could help, but I shouldn't be shocked if we get word soon that Stuart Baird or someone similar is being brought on to "consult."

No matter what, this creates real difficulties between Paramount and promotional partners, between studio and filmmaker, and between the movie and the audience. After all, this is going to be the story now for the next nine months. We'll hear about every single speed bump they encounter as they try to salvage this property. From now until the film opens, it's gone from being a somewhat under-the-radar attempt to reboot a series to now being a troubled production. It can be deadly when that's what an audience gets in their head, even if the end result works. Paramount's decision to fix the film could be the thing that destroys it in the end, and there's a good chance they'll spend much of the next year throwing good money after bad.

We'll see when "G.I. Joe Retaliation" opens on March 29, 2013.

[Guest jonogunn]

I do hope this means they don't kill Duke.

[rubie]

June 2, 2012
As Paramount redeploys 'GI Joe 2' to next spring, is summer the only place for tentpoles?by Anthony Breznican Inside Movies
Does a studio need at least one big-budget, summer tentpole film to stay competitive?
Conventional Hollywood wisdom says yes, and when Paramount Pictures decided to shift its upcoming sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation from June 29 — mere weeks away — to next March, ostensibly for reshoots and a 3-D retrofit that would draw in higher ticket prices, that left only the distribution of DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 3 and a Katy Perry concert film to prop up the studio’s summer.Wall Street and box office analysts say this was an unusual move, but they also agree that abandoning one lucrative season won’t be a problem if they can make it up at a later date. Will it work? Paramount has done it before.
The evolution of that conventional wisdom is that when a studio makes money is no longer as important as if they make it.
“Distributors are starting to look at the year as a 52-week release calendar. Instead of having all the big tentpole blockbusters in the summer competing, now it’s, ‘If we can make it work in March and April, maybe we’ll make more money that way,’” says Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com. Recent examples include Universal debuting Fast Five in April 2011 and Lionsgate releasing The Hunger Games in March of this year.
Although tentpoles may be migrating to other parts of the year, summer is still prime season.20th Century Fox just announced sequels to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and X-Men: First Class for summer of 2014, but it also dated Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse for April of that year — a shift from its original target in the middle of summer 2013.
More than any other studio, Paramount — whose executives were unavailable for comment — has shown a willingness to make dramatic changes when a planned release date becomes problematic, rather than stay the course toward potential trouble.
Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller Shutter Island was poised for an award-season bow in October 2009 when Paramount bumped it back to February 2010, just two months before its was to be released. Last-minute postponements always raise questions about the quality of a film, but when it finally did come out, Shutter Island earned $294 million worldwide — usurpingThe Departed as Scorsese’s biggest box-office hit to date. Although critics were mixed (only 69 percent of critics gave it positive marks on Rotten Tomatoes), the date shift seemed to successfully attract the older moviegoers Paramount needed.
Studios are constantly shuffling release dates, but since Paramount’s gamble with Shutter Island paid off handsomely, executives there have made three other major moves. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was bumped from March 2012 to January 2013, reportedly to capitalize on Jeremy Renner’s improved star-power after The Avengers and this summer’sThe Bourne Legacy. Brad Pitt’s zombie thriller World War Z recently shifted from the holidays of 2012 to the summer of 2013, with several weeks of reshoots set for unspecified changes.
And now comes the G.I. Joe: Retaliation switch, which will allow for reshoots to add more Channing Tatum, who has also seen his marquee value skyrocket after the hits 21 Jump Street and The Vow (with the upcoming stripper film Magic Mike potentially helping even more, instead of competing with it on the same weekend.)
GI Joe will also be post-converted to 3-D, which has proven to be a major moneymaker for studios, since those tickets are sold at a $3 to $5 premium over 2-D screenings. It will also dodge two likely behemoths – The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man — in a season when the superheroes of The Avengers were a vastly bigger draw than the military warriors of Battleship.Having a dry summer season may be unusual, and it’s certainly not ideal, but Wall Street isn’t worried about the studio’s long-term prospects.
“It would be atypical for Paramount to largely sit out the summer,” says David Joyce, media analyst for the investment advisory firm Miller Tabak & Co. “Transformers has been one of their huge summer franchises, and Star Trek and G.I. Joe did well for them in the summer. While it’s not an overly crowded tentpole summer for the industry, [Warner Bros.'] The Dark Knight Rises will be big in July, and it’s better for Paramount to take its time, make the G.I. Joesequel right, and protect the long-term value of the franchise.”After Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator underperformed in May, Paramount’s summer will consist of distribution fees from DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (out June 8) and the candy-colored musical documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me (out July 5).
Those movies are unlikely to replicate the mammoth season Paramount had last year, led by the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon — unless one of Perry’s costume changes is into Optimus Prime. But after the surprise success of The Devil Inside, which Paramount picked up for $1 million and turned into a $101 million global hit, and factoring in that they will collect a percentage of The Avengers as part of the deal that passed Marvel Studios to Disney, the studio isn’t in crisis either.
“It’s not such an orthodoxy as it used to be that you have to have one or two big summer movies,” says Eric Volkman, who wrote about Viacom and Paramount’s slate for the investment analysis firm The Motley Fool. “Maybe Paramount and Viacom lose a little prestige, but in terms of operations and finance and pure business, I think it’s going to do pretty well with this approach, and I think [moving G.I. Joe] was a smart thing for them to do.”
The latter half of the studio’s 2012 slate will bring Tom Cruise’s crime saga Jack Reacher, based on Lee Childs’ series of best-selling novels; Paranormal Activity 4, the latest in the cheap-to-produce moneymakers; Denzel Washington’s airline crash drama Flight, directed by Robert Zemeckis; and the Seth Rogen/Barbra Streisand comedy The Guilt Trip, among others.
Contrino predicts many of those will do well, although there’s unlikely to be a record-breaking blockbuster in the lineup. “It’s a lot of doubles, but nothing is a full-on home run.”
Volkman was more bullish on the rest of Paramount’s 2012 titles. “Some of these smaller movies do have a lot of potential: Name stars, good directors, good writers. And there are a few franchises among them.”
Both analysts believe 2013 will be much brighter for the studio. That’s when Paramount will (of course) have G..I Joe: Retaliation in March, targeting the same period Lionsgate used to make The Hunger Games a hit, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2 on May 17, Pitt’s World War Z on July 21, and a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie set for the holidays.
They’ve already put out the call to the Autobots for help. Michael Bay is currently shooting the dark comedy Pain & Gain for the studio, but once he finishes that he’ll begin work on Transformers 4 for 2014.“When people compare Paramount’s 2012 to its 2011, it’s not going to be pretty. But that’s a superficial analysis. It’s very short-sighted to look at previous year and say a studio is failing,” Contrino says. “Paramount should not be judged on one year. They’re still a very strong studio that knows how to pick valuable properties.”
As for G.I. Joe, which has already spent money on a Super Bowl ad and other marketing, investors will be happier to have Viacom eat that cost and spend some cash on reshoots if it means Paramount can turn the film into a bigger hit in the spring. “All they’re leaving is the ante on the table. In relation to the cost of the movie, it’s not so much,” Volkman says.
In other words, when you’re playing box-office poker, sometimes it’s better to fold than lose even more to the guys in the fancy suits — namely Batman and Spider-Man.

[rubie]

June 2, 2012
What Actually Counts As a Spoiler, Anyway?by Graeme McMillan spinoff.comicbookresources.com When is a spoiler not a spoiler? When a spoiler for something that doesn’t actually happen in a movie or television show falls in a forest, does anyone hear it? The revelation this week that GI Joe: Retaliation was delayed in part to reshoot scenes that would change a crucial plot point in the movie – which revealed said plot point – has gotten me thinking about the nature of spoilers that aren’t quite spoilers.

I’m not going to entirely reveal the GI Joe rumor here, in part because it’s still not entirely clear whether or not the plot point will definitely be changed, or just have more footage added to make it less out-of-nowhere (Short version: Someone dies. Or maybe they don’t, now). But the discussion around it made me wonder: Is being told that something isn’t going to happen a spoiler? In one sense, after all, it is: Not knowing that something is going to be an outcome is getting closer to knowing what is the outcome, especially if it’s something that’s a binary choice. “Is he going to die?” only really has two answers, after all. Following that train of thought, though, gets into ridiculous waters mighty quickly: What if there’s no question about whether or not the character was going to die? Is it a spoiler to say that Toy Story 3 doesn’t feature the death of Buzz Lightyear, or The Avengers doesn’t feature the death of Iron Man?
And if so, does the very knowledge that there’s going to be an Iron Man 3 constitute a spoiler for The Avengers? What about casting news for upcoming movies? The last couple of weeks have seen all manner of rumors flying around about who’s playing whom in Iron Man 3, for example; does seeing leaked pics of someone in the Iron Patriot armor constitute a spoiler, or just a piece of information that – without context – is interesting but essentially meaningless? What about next week’s Prometheus: Does being told what Michael Fassbender’s role is count as a spoiler, and if your answer is “yes,” then what does it mean that the information was intentionally released ahead of time by the moviemakers in the form of a video teaser?
Do trailers act as spoilers? It’s a common complaint, that the best scenes have been released in the trailer, months before the movie has come out… So is that spoiling the movie or not? The defense given by those who revealed the GI Joe: Retailiation moment was that, if you paid enough attention to the trailer, you would’ve been able to draw the conclusion from there, but… Aren’t trailers there to tease audiences, and to suggest possible outcomes instead of lay everything out there beforehand? That act of teasing, though, leads to people deconstructing images and scenes in trailers looking to unravel the mysteries of the upcoming movie, risking – you guessed it – spoiling themselves.
Spoilers are everywhere, it seems, if you choose to look at them that way. Every piece of information released about a movie could be looked upon as a spoiler of sorts, taking away one more piece of uncertainty in favor of telling you what to expect in one direction or another. The only way to get around that for film- and television-makers, it’d appear, would be to release a movie with as little information about it available ahead of time as possible… But that kind of secrecy only makes people even more curious about what it’s about (See also Prometheus). Maybe the answer is to stop worrying, and embrace the entire experience: Flood the internet with fake spoilers for your project so that no-one will have any idea of what to expect, because they’ve been told to expect everything. That, or make your stories so good that it doesn’t matter if you know what’s coming, it’ll still be enjoyable no matter what.
Why are you looking at me like that? It worked for The Avengers…

[rubie]

June 4, 2012
Channing Tatum Doesn't Know About His Involvement For Retaliation Reshootsby BCYOJOE hisstank.com Actor Channing Tatum who plays role of Duke for the Live Action G. I. Joe Movie Series still doesn’t know whether he is to go back to the set for reshoots.
Earlier, rumors were flying that Paramount pushed back G. I. Joe: Retaliation almost a year to reshoot the movie with more scenes involving Channing Tatum’s character.
"I don't know. Truly," Tatum said when asked if the rumors we'd see more of him in the revamped sequel are true. "I haven't seen the movie. I did my part and then all this stuff is going on, so they haven't come to talk to me about anything. They talk about a lot of stuff; who knows if it's the industry or the actual studio? You never know."
Channing Tatum talks (briefly) about rumors of more Duke in G.I. Joe: RetaliationGeneralJoes.com
While Paramount’s official line remains that the G.I. Joe: Retaliation delay is due to a desire to convert the film to 3D, rumors still swirl that they’re also doing some reshoots and also trying to provide more Channing Tatum for the movie going audience.
While at the MTV Movie Awards last night, Tatum was approached by MTV and asked about the status of G.I. Joe: Retaliation and whether or not he would be participating in any reshoots.  His answer was pretty non-committal, saying he didn’t really know what was going on, and that he had done everything they had asked him to do.
Doesn’t sound much like someone who is still involved with the film, in my mind…or has the desire to promote it.  But we are still nine months out.
Also, don’t forget that there were rumors that people seeing the early screenings were being shown two endings, one with Tatum deceased, and one with him alive.  It’s possible they have already filmed all of the footage of him that they need and it’s all up to the editors now. 
Check out the interview on MTV.com

[rubie]

June 4, 2012
Director Jon Chu Requested A Longer Delay For G.I. JOE: RETALIATIONGeneral Joes has chatted with director Jon Chu about the G.I. Joe: Retaliation rumors and he has clarified that he requested the long delay in order to get the the 3D conversion done correctly.Credit: nailbiter111 comicbookmovie.com
UPDATE: General Joes spoke with Jon Chu through twitter in hopes of dismissing the new rumors that the director is having a conflict with Paramount about the delay. 
The director of G.I. Joe: Retaliation denies claims that there is any contention whatsoever between himself and Paramount, and he is in fact currently at work on the film. The long length of the delay was actually at his request to make sure if they were going to go through the 3D conversion that they do it the right way and not be rushed. 
He did admit that he was disappointed about the push back of the film, but he is working hard to do the film right. In fact, the director, who already has significant 3D experience with Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, said to me that he hopes to try some “fun new things” with the technology as we move towards the new release date in 2013. 
While he obviously could not confirm any specific details about reshoots, he did say that any new scenes they are shooting will endeavor to be as good as they can be in 3D to make the wait worth while. 
Mr. Chu did want to make sure that I relayed his deep appreciation for all of the great feedback he’s received so far and for how well he is being accepted and treated by the fans of the franchise. He and Paramount are “working very well together” and from the sounds of it, the film is on the right track as we move towards March, 2013. He was quite happy and satisfied that Paramount agreed to give them the extra time and resources required to do the film in 3D the right way. - General Joes
....................................................
Last week Deadline reported that their source had heard that Jon Chu was "shellshocked" about pushing back the released date for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. While Paramount is sticking with the story that the delay is just for 3D conversion, reports left and right have said otherwise. Now getting into the mix is HitFix who reports that Chu could be replaced as the director, but not without a fight. 
We've been hearing reports of rough test screenings for the film, but things are starting to get genuinely contentious between director Jon Chu and the studio, and right now, there is a chance he won't be directly involved at all with the reshoots. There's also a chance Chu might try to legally force his way back onto the film, which could create even more strain in the relationship he has with Paramount. Word is that producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is firmly on Chu's side, which could help, but I shouldn't be shocked if we get word soon that Stuart Baird or someone similar is being brought on to "consult." - HitFix

[rubie]

June 6, 2012
HISSTANK.comMore New G. I. Joe: Retaliation Images - Cobra Commander, Roadblock, Storm Shadow & More
More new photos from G. I. Joe: Retaliation has surfaced recently. This time by the photographer Jaimie Trueblood.
Out of the new photos, the fan favorite is surely the image of Cobra Commander.
It is kind of strange these photos surfacing all of a sudden when the movie is more than 9 months away, but we certainly aren't complaining. 

[rubie]

July 5, 2012
Coming soon(er or later) to a theater near you'G.I. Joe: Retaliation,' 'World War Z,' 'Jack the Giant Killer,' '47 Ronin' were set for 2012 releases. For various reasons, you'll have to check back next year.By Ben Fritz LA Times
Four of Hollywood's biggest 2012 movies are on hold until 2013.
Delayed and missing their dates at the box office are the sequel"G.I. Joe: Retaliation,"the zombie apocalypse tale "World War Z," the fairy tale adaptation "Jack the Giant Killer" and the samurai epic "47 Ronin."
"Ronin," which stars Keanu Reeves, has been delayed four months. "Jack," directed by Bryan Singer, was pushed back nine months. "G.I. Joe" was knocked off its release date just five weeks before its scheduled opening. "World War Z" got rescheduled six months ahead of its original release date.
Each of the four films had its own unique set of problems. But together they illustrate the unintended side-effect of their studios' desire to claim the most profitable release dates, often before there is even a completed script — the moviemaking equivalent of sending out birth announcements before you've managed to get pregnant.
"It is commonplace now for the best release dates to be taken very far in advance, which means we are choosing a date well before the movie has begun shooting," said Paramount Pictures film group president Adam Goodman. "When I first got into the business, it was the other way around."
"World War Z" and "Ronin" are both complex pictures with budgets of about $170 million. Conflicts on the sets of both movies caused their studios to bail on their original release dates and led to plans for reshoots in the fall, according to knowledgeable people who were not authorized to speak publicly.
"World War Z's" production was beset by creative and business differences among such key players as star and producer Brad Pitt, director Marc Forster (whose only previous tentpole movie experience was the James Bond sequel"Quantum of Solace") and an array of producers and executives from four different financiers backing the picture.
Their principal source of anxiety was the ending of the film shot by Forster. Dissatisfied with the result, Paramount now has "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof writing a new conclusion and a new release date of June 21, 2013.
Similarly, Universal had difficulties with its first-time feature director Carl Rinsch, and now plans to reshoot the ending and other sequences of "47 Ronin." The new filming is designed to beef up star Reeves' character and make the movie less of an ensemble piece.
Last-minute date changes are not uncommon in Hollywood — Universal recently held its "The Bourne Legacy"by a week to avoid competing with Sony's"Total Recall" remake. But four big pictures being pushed into a new year — so far — may be a new record.
Making post-production changes on a modern big-budget movie is complicated and costly. Studios not only need to reunite cast and crew who have moved onto other projects, but have to get special-effects houses to re-create their work on a fast schedule and often at a premium price.
"Introducing a single change into a script can mean redoing a hundred special-effects shots," said a person close to one of the delayed movies who was not authorized to speak publicly. "You can't believe how many people are working on it and how much it costs."
It can also be embarrassing. Changing a movie's release date, especially at the last minute, in the age of aggressive film blogs and Twitter, is a very public event.
"It used to be you could delay a movie and nobody outside the industry noticed," said Bruce Berman, chief executive of Village Roadshow Pictures. "Today the whole world knows right away and you have to fight the presumption that there's something wrong with your film before it even opens."
But a little humiliation and tens of millions of dollars on reshoots may be preferable to the alternative. Hearts skipped a beat throughout Hollywood this spring at the spectacular failures of the would-be blockbusters"Battleship" and"John Carter," which resulted in massive losses for Universal and Disney, respectively.
Fear of following in those movies' footsteps was a factor in Paramount's decision to delay its "G.I. Joe" sequel, which stars Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis, even though the studio had already spent millions marketing a June 29, 2012, launch.
The movie was good enough to be released, people close to the production said, but backers decided that it was worth the added cost to convert the film to 3-D and consider reshoots that would beef up the character played by Channing Tatum — and might even save his life. The new version may revive Tatum's character, who was killed off in the version already shot.
Warner Bros.decided in January to push "Jack the Giant Killer," director Bryan Singer's revisionist take on the fairy tale, off its June release date, afraid of competing against the month's other big movie,"Snow White and the Huntsman."But the studio has taken advantage of its extra nine months to conduct reshoots as well, and now will release the film in March.
Hollywood's holdups this year are already having repercussions far into the future. With three movies on its 2012 release schedule now pushed into 2013, Paramount recently delayed the release of its "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" remake from December 2013 to May 2014.
And there could easily be more dashed hopes and delays ahead. Studios have already claimed a number of high-profile dates in 2014 for movies that are still in development, including sequels to"X-Men: First Class,""The Amazing Spider-Man"and "Transformers."
"Smurfs 2," meanwhile, is set for Aug. 2, 2013, and "Smurfs 3" has already claimed its opening date for July 24, 2015.

[rubie]

July 8, 2012
Low-Res G.I. JOE: RETALIATION Posters Feature Roadblock, Snake Eyes, And MoreWesleyGibson ComicBookMovie.com
While not the newest or in best quality, some cool new posters featuring characters seen in the latest G.I. Joe film have found their way online via GeneralsJoes.com. Take a look after the jump...
Sorry that these posters aren't in better quality, but searching I found these interesting posters that feature The Rock as Roadblock, Ray Park as Snake Eyes, Ray Stevenson as Firefly, and the rest of the cast. Take a look at the posters below. 

[rubie]

July 17, 2012
Chan-wook Park's English-Language Debut, STOKER, Gets Release Dateby Matt Goldberg Collider.com l Nate

We were starting to wonder when Stoker, the English-language debut from Oldboy director Chan-wook Park, would get released.  The film went in front of cameras last September, and we haven’t heard anything about it since.  Today, Box Office Mojo reports that Stoker will open March 1, 2013.  The plot centers on a young girl (Mia Wasikowska) who encounters her mysterious uncle (Matthew Goode) while mourning her death of her father (Dermot Mulroney).  The impressive cast also includes Nicole Kidman, Jackie Weaver, Lucas Till, and Alden Ehrenreich.  I’ve been told that the movie could be described as a horror, a thriller, a drama, or a combination of all three, so it will be interesting to see how Fox Searchlight plans to sell it.
It won’t be an easy sell in a crowded March 2013, which could almost pass for a summer month with the amount of heavy-hitters it has on hand.  Stoker will be sharing its weekend with Neill Blomkamp‘s District 9 follow-up, Elysium, which stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.  Even if Stoker does well, it will be tough to have legs in a month that also includes Oz the Great and Powerful, Now You See Me, the remake of Carrie, the Tom Hanks drama Captain Phillips, DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods, Jack the Giant Killer, and the delayed 3D release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

[rubie]

July 25, 2012
Jon Chu Explains GI Joe Retaliation DelayPosted by Shin Densetsu HissTank.com
NewMediaRockstars recently sat down for a chat with GI Joe Retaliation Director Jon Chu. While the bulk of the interview was about Justin Bieber and the various dance movies Chu has directed, GI Joe Retaliation was mentioned. Chu talked about how great it was to work with The Rock and how he envisioned Retaliation to be how he saw GI Joe while growing up playing with the figures. 
In addition, Chu was asked about why the movie was delayed. Chu gives a detailed explanation in which he goes over why Paramount changed their minds and why he, personally, wanted more time to work on the movie after the decision was made to convert it to 3D:
NMR: What are the real reasons for why the release of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” was delayed? Was it to reshoot Channing Tatum?
JMC: No. I mean, nobody really knows. It’s funny because nobody actually knows what happens to Channing Tatum in our movie yet, so it’s interesting to hear all the rumors of what they think happens or what they don’t think happens. But, no, our main thing was we have had discussions about turning the movie 3D since I first came onto the project, but we never made that choice because it would cost too much money or we would have to push our date. So in the beginning, there was always that discussion. The studio decided we don’t have that amount of money, so I was like, “If we are not going to do it right, then we shouldn’t do it,” and that went away. Then, about 6 months ago, it came back, and we could dimensionalize it, but then we have to push our date. We have to have enough time to do it right, and they are like, “Yeah, you’re right. We don’t have enough time, and it’s going to cost so much money.” Then, about 5 or 6 weeks before the movie comes out, 3D is doing really well overseas, obviously, and they come back one more time and say this is our last chance. We could do it, but we have to push the date, and we think that it’s worth putting the movie [in 3D], because it has a lot of 3D elements to it. We think it’s worth doing now. Was I frustrated? Yeah, because I wanted, I want the movie to come out the way we promised, but at the same time, I was like, “Listen, but if we’re going to do this though, we have to do it right. Please don’t short change me and have us come out in September, and then the 3D is going to be bad, and people are going to be pissed that we pushed it.” So, they agreed. They were like, “You’re right. We will give you enough time and money to do it right, because if we are going to do this, we are going to do it.” And so for that, I am grateful that they understand that we need to do it right, and we are going to deliver a great 3D movie, the ninja action, and obviously, Dwayne in 3D is going to be really, really awesome — an experience unlike anything before, and we get the time to do it right. So, you know it doesn’t take 9 months to do 3D, but our next available sort of opening was in March — great opening — so we will we work on it up to that point, and we will take every inch of time we have to perfect it."
Do you think the delay to March of 2013 is for the better?

Complete JC interview here

[rubie]

July 25, 2012
New GI Joe Retaliation Japanese PosterPosted by Shin Densetsu HissTank.com
Thanks to Latino Review by way of Mark Markus, we have a new look at the all New GI Joe Retaliation Japanese Poster. In the poster are:
Snake EyesRoadblockJoe ColtonLady JayeJinxStorm ShadowCobra Commander
Some of the character portraits are reused from previous posters. 
GI Joe Retaliation 3D premieres March 29th 2013.

[rubie]

August 2, 2012
Thanks to the highlight at HissTank.com
Now available at Amazon.com l Amazon.UK
2013 G.I. Joe: Retaliation Wall Calendar

[rubie]

 Missed these before, our thanks to the highlight at PlanetBH0712
June 29, 2012
G.I. Joe Retaliation Promotional Images @ Joecon 2012by Tony_Bacala HissTank.com (check out the link for the rest of the images)

[rubie]

September 15, 2012
G.I. Joe: Retaliation reshoots include more Storm ShadowGeneralJoes.com
In what has been a relatively barren month or two for G.I. Joe: Retaliation news, Celebuzz spoke to actor Byung-Hun Lee, who of course plays Storm Shadow about his upcoming film Masquerade.  Among the discussion points, the G.I. Joe: Retaliation topic came up and Lee explained that he was pulled from shooting Masquerade to come back to the states and film more scenes for G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
This does fit alongside previously revealed details explaining that not only was the film being post-converted to 3D, but that Paramount was actually filming some additional scenes to make the 3D all that much better.
Throughout the conversation, the Korean actor also expressed a deep respect for director Jon Chu.
It’s a very interesting interview that also reveals some of the difficulties Byung-Hun Lee had in filming The Rise of Cobra, especially considering he could not speak English at the time.  Check it out over on Celebuzz.com and thanks to Skywarp for the info.