Slowly but surely we’re drifting closer to March, 2013, and every day we move closer, the promotional train will start revving up again. I think the more we see the name G.I. Joe: Retaliation in the public eye the better…we were getting some great word of mouth and some terrific response in the summer, and I can only hope these events kick back up again for the release in March.
For now, Collider has spoken with Lorenzo Di Bonventura, one of the producers for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and because Collider is awesome, they made sure to get some G.I. Joe questions in there. The questions focused mainly on 3D conversion and the film’s delay. When talking about the 3D conversion itself in relation to the delay, Di Bonventura said:
“We learned a lot about 3D—I personally learned a lot about 3D inTransformers. The conversion part of the 3D process is night and day, you know, every three, four months it’s better than it was before. It’s amazing how fast that thing has changes. And originally we didn’t really have the time or the resources to try to figure out how to shoot it in 3D in the time frame that we were originally talking about, you know, starting in August and releasing in June. So this delay has allowed us to go at it now.”
…and he brings up a good point. Many folks have forgotten that G.I. Joe: Retaliation was initially slated for a later release, but got pushed up to meet the spot for the vacated Star Trek sequel. I can imagine that much compressed timeline meant that real time 3D wasn’t an option. In talking about director Jon Chu’s experience with 3D:
“Jon [Chu] has some sequences that are really, there’s a phenomenal—for G.I. Joe fans it’s going to be one of the really great scenes for them, because there’s a fight between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow in a hallway that is so perfect for 3D I can’t tell you. It’s going to be like one of the coolest fights ever in 3D, because there’s so much about it that’s dynamic. That’s going to be really fun. And you know people have seen bits and pieces of the Himalayan sort of rock climbing thing, it’s almost 3D without having turned into 3D, so I can’t wait to see that. That one’s going to be like what the hell?”
Interesting. All of the footage that we’ve seen so far involve some scenes from that hallway battle, and they certainly don’t seem like a showcase fight between the two, but thinking about 3D and those throwing stars flying around…that has the potential to be a very cool sequence. Certainly when thinking about 3D, I usually think about a much broader expanse, but in that tight area, there are some pretty neat things that could be done.
Lastly, Do Bonaventura talks about the delay itself:
“When you’re planning yourself all towards one direction, you know, you definitely go, ‘Whoa, what the hell?’ But the second—here’s a sort of simple way for me to look at things: if the studio wants to spend money on making your movie better, let them… I find it hilarious when people fight that, you know? I’m like, ‘Great, you want to spend a lot of money and try to make our movie a bigger success? Okay! That sounds good.’ And Jon got that too. The first moment you’re sort of going, “Whoa! Uhhh, wait.’ Then you realize, ‘Oh okay, great, let’s do that.’”
Yeah, that’s a pretty good point, too. Sure, it feels like a gut punch, but Paramount is investing some serious cash to push the film back and to invest some more money in 3D conversion and possibly some reshoots. Obviously they have some faith that the end result will be worth it.
Check out the article at Collider right here, and big thanks to them for asking some G.I. Joe themed questions. I think we’re all keeping the candle lit for another 4 months. It’ll be here sooner than we think!
The more I look at this concept art, the more drool I have to dump out of my keyboard. A big thanks to Twitter friend Twitziller for digging up a new piece of Massive Black concept art from artist Kemp Remillard. And yes, artist is exactly the right term.
I believe the only new G.I. Joe related piece is this pair of images that strongly resemble the Ghost Hawk for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, except with about 147% more awesome. Check out the mirrored images below, and be sure to comb through the image repository here to glory over all of the other awesome art he has for G.I. Joe and other properties.
Perhaps someone with keener eyes can tell me if this is truly a “new” trailer or not. There are some bits I do not remember (specifically the words in between some scenes, and Firefly’s dialogue about hunting)… but it’s been a while.
Regardless, this trailer was posted just yesterday on YouTube and claims to be a new 2013 trailer. There are not any major new sequences, but hey… G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer! GOOO!
As we inch ever closer to 2013, I keep on waiting to get thrown back into the onslaught of marketing for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but the well continues to be relatively dry where information and news goes.
However, the same cannot be said of Jon Chu himself, who has his irons in several different fires at the moment. He’s been officially announced as the Masters of the Universe film director, he’s deeply involved in Justin Bieber’s Believe tour, is currently working with LXD (the League of Extraordinary Dancers) and his YouTube channel DS2DIO. Along with all of this, his first commercial recently aired for Microsoft’s Surface tablet. You can check that out right here.
With all of these projects, MTV Geek sat down with the director, and of course the subject of G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s controversial delay came up. They touch on the subject somewhat, though there isn’t much detail. Chu confirms that his work with dance helped prepare him for some complicated action sequences, and actually convinced producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura to give him the director job.
He also speaks about 3D and how even though G.I. Joe: Retaliation is technically being converted to 3D post-production, many of the scenes within the film were shot with 3D in mind and the end result will be much more effective than you might see in other post-production films. He’s also still working hard to possibly shoot some new scenes with 3D from the ground up to even better take advantage of this delay.
You can read the entire interview right here. It’s a really interesting look at the director, which touches on a lot of subjects aside from G.I. Joe. I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s really cool to see how his experience with dance choreography has enabled him to view action films in a different light and bring his 3D skills to the table for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Especially with as little news about the film as we’re seeing right now, it’s worth checking out.
I always enjoy it when a G.I. Joe: Retaliation star has another movie coming out, because that opens the door for some interviews, and in this case, while promoting Red Dawn, Ms. Palicki spoke with Crave Online, who touched on the G.I. Joe: Retaliation delay.
“When G.I. Joe: Retaliation got delayed, did you think, “Here we go again?”
[Laughs] Yes, it’s the third movie that’s done that to me. Legion as well was like two years after or something. Yes, but in that case G.I. Joe’s different because it was coming out within a year that we wrapped. It was coming out super early so now it actually makes more sense when it’s coming out and they’re going to convert it to 3D which I think will make the movie much, much better but I definitely don’t have the same fear with G.I. Joe.
Do you have to reshoot anything for G.I. Joe?
Not as of now, no.”
And really, that’s it. No ground breaking news… but clearly it’s Adrianne Palicki’s fault that G.I. Joe: Retaliation was delayed…seems to be an epidemic around her!
