Film Interview Rhett Reese And Paul Wernick Talk G I Joe Retaliation Rewrites And Protagonist Shuffles

/Film Interview: Rhett Reese And Paul Wernick Talk ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Rewrites And Protagonist Shuffles

By Germain Lussier/March 27, 2013 11:00 am EST

Reese and Wernick, best known for Zombieland and definitely not pictured above, first pitched Paramount their take on a G.I. Joe sequel several years ago and have since had to rewrite the film to feature multiple different main characters and incorporate whole new storylines. We talked all about that, as well as what it’s like to jump into an existing franchise, that amazing mountain ninja scene, how Michael Bay changed the movie as well as Destro’s fate. Plus, we talked Deadpool, Zombieland, Cowboy Ninja Viking, and Micronauts which they’re developing with J.J. Abrams.

It’s a revealing interview, which you can read below.

Beware, there are is a major spoiler for G.I Joe Retaliation below. However, it’s just the spoiler that’s been rumored for months so I’m leaving it in with a big, bold warning./Film: You guys come into this franchise after the first movie, which you had nothing to do with, and I’m really curious about what guidelines you were given. Are you told “These are the characters you can use. These are the characters you can’t use. We need so and so to die. We need you to end up here”? Take me through a little bit of that process.

BEGIN SPOILER!/Film: When Jon came on board, what kind of input did he have on your script? How much did it change? I’m thinking obviously with your pitch you’d want Duke in there and we know what happens to Duke  - it’s sort of out there anyway – but that wouldn’t be something like “I have a great idea, let’s do this to our biggest star,” so where did that come in?

Reese: It also allowed us to establish a revenge plot. We thought we needed to kill someone important in order to raise the stakes and make sure you really wanted the GI JOES to get their revenge on the Cobras.END SPOILER!/Film: And Jon’s input, once he comes on with your script?

Reese: Jon just brought it to life essentially and wonderfully. I mean he has a real connection to the toys and to the characters and it clearly shows.Wernick: As do you.Reese: Yeah, as do I. My very first home movies I made were of GI JOE, my GI JOE characters all battling each other./Film: The small GI JOES?

Wernick: But that’s difficult to write. I mean that was… You think like “How do writers write action?” You write it like you would any dialog scene. It’s all step by step written out and kind of choreographed over the course of a scene and a scene with no dialog, that was probably 13 pages.Reese: Yeah, and we originally intended to have, or we pitched Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow jumping off the mountains and using squirrel suits to fly down the mountainside and when we pitched it, Lorenzo [Di Bonaventura] was working on…Wernick: It was about three years ago…Reese: Yeah, he was working on TRANSFORMERS and he said, “It’s too bad, but it’s in TRANSFORMERS,” so we went back to the drawing board and back to the internet and we discovered this guy named Dan Osmen, who was a rock climber who invented something called Rope Jumping and basically what he does is he climbs a cliff face or a mountain and he fixes ropes on the way up and then he jumps off and uses those ropes to arrest his fall. It’s almost like he is swinging off the side of the mountain like Tarzan. He ended up dying doing this exact thing, like his rope broke and he died, but before he died he made all of these videos of himself doing it and we looked at it and we thought “That’s the way they are going to get down the mountain. They are going to fix ropes on the way up and then use them to swing down and we will do a real fun Tarzan and Jane sequence against the mountainside.“Wernick: And I remember when Lorenzo said “Oh no, we are using those squirrel suits in TRANSFROMERS,” we were so depressed. We were like “Oh my god…” They hadn’t been tapped in movies yet and we were watching all of the videos and it was just awesome and then about three days later Rhett was scouring the internet and he’s like “Check out this YouTube video with this Don Osmen guy” and I’m like “Oh my god, that’s phenomenal.“Reese: It was a blessing in disguise./Film: Yeah, that scene is freaking great. Was Roadblock always the main character?

Wernick: Then we have a third draft with Joe Colton worked in. Joe Colton was, again a Jon thing, and that wasn’t worked in until later drafts.Reese: So we really had four major drafts with three protagonists at different times and then Joe Colton, so you can imagine it took a long time and was really intricate./Film: And you talked about how you jumped off with the president and that’s where the first movie leaves you, but the first movie also takes the two most interesting Cobra Villains and says, “You can’t use these.” They have them captured. That must have been something that was a little frustrating. How did you guys deal with that?

Wernick: And interestingly, Destro stayed in prison, because of a budget… you have to CG his mask the whole time and that was a budget constraint. Then we said, “Well what are we going to do with Destro?” It was like “Leave him down there.” (Laughs) “Too expensive."/Film: Now you guys have tons of other stuff on your plate. One thing we keep reading about is how awesome your DEADPOOL script is, but that it’s so awesome we might never see it. How would you guys describe the script that’s out there right now that’s so R rated that we can’t…

Wernick: We really tapped into the character. They say, “write what you know.” It’s ultimately a self hating….Reese: (Laughs) Exactly. “Irreverent, vile lunatic."/Film: Have you talked to Mark Millar at all about it? I know he’s running this sort of…

Wernick: We are beating that drum. It’s the one project that we are so passionate to get made and we are doing everything we can. We have a few tricks up our sleeves still.Reese: We are living a game of thrones or trying to.Wernick: You can find the script online actually. It leaked and there are downloads that you can read it yourself./Film: And you guys are fine with that, because you’re happy with it?

Reese: We really couldn’t be. I mean we didn’t have a choice, like it leaked and we couldn’t’ do anything about it and for a minute we were appalled and then the reaction was great, so we were excited and now I guess it doesn’t really matter.Wernick: Wait until you’ve seen Tim’s test. It’s brilliant./Film: I guess once it gets the green light we will see it at Comic Con or something like that.

/Film: What’s your involvement with the ZOMBIELAND TV show and how will its success make or break a sequel?

Reese: Knock on wood./Film: Last thing, you’re developing MICRONAUTS with Bad Robot. Now that that Abrams guy is kind of busy, what kind of conversations have you had with JJ and the team there?

Wernick: It’s not what you expect I guess is the best way to put it.Reese: It’s different and it’s cool and we hope that gets made at some point. So we will see.G.I. Joe Retaliation opens March 29.