Chris Hemsworth in Talks to Star in Transformers GI Joe Crossover Movie

They are so incredibly out of touch with what fans of this franchise actually want, it's ridiculous.

Travis Knight was on to something with Bumblebee
Rise of the Beasts was decent, but a big step down from the Optimus - focused film that was originally in the works. That project was shot down obviously in favor of a world building film so they can have their own 80s verse.

I'm not holding my breath here. It's clear to me that they are trying to use star power once more, but Hemsworth's involvement with Mad Max did nothing for that franchise, nor did it do anything for the Men in Black franchise, or pretty much anything that wasn't Marvel related.

His VO work in the TF: One film already put me off. All these years waiting for a new animated film, and that's the BEST they could do?

Rant over.

My expectations are rock bottom. I bet it will be a "serious" movie that will be generic as a saltless cracker.

But if by some miracle, the movie go full Sunbow with the craziness of the original G1 cartoons, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

I'm glad to see Chirs Hemsworth investing in his carrer.
If he is going to be one of the human characters, he has enough range to do a both serious and light moments.

Okay... But will he be replacing Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime?
Or will he be a human character?

I'm only positive about real Transformers live action with Bumblebee. That was really a step in the right direction and would've been a great franchise starter. Escalating with more bots and eventually combiners etc.

Rise of the Beasts is so damn full of mistakes and just bland as hell.
The best youtube explanation is Filmento's review. He hits the nail on the head on the major things that are wrong with Rise of the Beasts.

And adding GI Joe to Transformers. .... that's just a ton of cringe man.
The GI Joe movies were silly with fun moments, Snake Eyes I couldn't finish watching a second time. It's just weak man, they are weak movies, and Rise of the Beasts might be even more below mid than the Joe movies. And then matching the two together?

Maybe the makers thought they had a Batman v Superman movie reveal moment, but the only reaction in the cinema were people laughing like, omg that's so stupid.

I don't care about Chris Hemsworth but I just hope he plays a character I can take seriously compared to what became of Thor. Either way, I still hope this GI Joe crossover is neither bloated like TLK or boring like Bumblebee

While the GI Joe Transformers crossover movie is underway at Paramount, leaded by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, it was still missing a writer and a director (Steven Caple Jr is not currently attached to the film). Well, it now has a writer and it's Derek Connolly, who is a true darling over at Hollywood, with an expertise in huge budget franchise movies. Those include Rise of Skywalker, Kong Skull Island, Detective Pikachu and all 3 Jurassic World films. All those films have been box office successes, many reaching the billion dollar mark.

Say what you want about those movies, but it seems Derek knows how to write a billion dollar movie. We'll see if his winning streak continues with this Transformers Gi Joe movie.

This is not good news. This is one of the idiots that brought us attacking Star Destroyers on horseback and "Somehow, Palpatine returned."

Brokebot wrote:This is not good news. This is one of the idiots that brought us attacking Star Destroyers on horseback and "Somehow, Palpatine returned."

to be fair:

1. that film still made over a billion dollars, which is something that hasnt happened in a TF film in 10 years
2. he didn't write the somehow palpatine line. While they kept the story he developped, the whole film was rewritten after his original script.

Fair, but one can be forgiven for feeling rather skeptical. Guess we'll see...

william-james88 wrote:

Brokebot wrote:This is not good news. This is one of the idiots that brought us attacking Star Destroyers on horseback and "Somehow, Palpatine returned."

to be fair:

1. that film still made over a billion dollars, which is something that hasnt happened in a TF film in 10 years
2. he didn't write the somehow palpatine line. While they kept the story he developped, the whole film was rewritten after his original script.

1. Fine. A fleet of Star Destroyers constructed UNDERGROUND that have to crash their way to the surface, and then don't know which way is up once they're in the air. Admittedly, that bit of cinematic dipshittery has Jar Jar Abrams stink all over it, but I digress.

2. It made a billion dollars based on its brand name, not it's quality. If it were a generic sci fi movie stripped of it's Star Wars connections but with the same basic script, it probably wouldn't have made its production money back.

It was also a different time. If you wanted to see a movie -- ANY movie, you went to the theater. Even mediocre movies had a decent shot of breaking even or turning a profit. Now, three weeks after its release it'll be on a streaming service, so why bother? I honestly don't see enough of a demand to make a GI Joe/Transformers crossover movie profitable. The last two Transformers efforts were hardly blockbusters, and none of the GI Joe movies exactly shattered expectations.

Remain optimistic all you like. As for me, I haven't seen anything floating in the sewage flowing out of Hollywood that would give me any reason to believe a forthcoming movie will be anything more than the disjointed nonsense that came before it.

Yeah, I'm not enthusiastic either. Rise of Skywalker was mediocre at best, owing its success to the franchise name, much like Last Jedi, and that was just a gigantic sweaty turd.

As for the TF/Joe crossover, hopefully they keep stephen caple jr. FAR from the director's chair. That way it might still have a chance, even with a mediocre writer attached.

I was about to trash that writer but there's Detective Pikachu to his credits.

So I 'll keep an open mind.

Say what you want about the Rise of Skywalker (I personally thought it was a mess of a film to top off a mess of a trilogy), but the fact that he wrote the Jurassic World movies was the nail in the coffin regarding my optimism about the movie. I can still somewhat enjoy the first World movie, but the second and ESPECIALLY the third were among some of the worst movies I've seen in theaters. (Kong Skull Island and Detective Pikachu were fine. ) But of course, time will tell..

Rise of Skywalker and the Jurassic World movies were garbage.

Detective Pikachu and Kong: Skull Island were pretty good.

So no idea how to feel about this. I assume multiple writers were involved on all of these movies, so it's hard to gauge if this is good or bad.

Spider5800 wrote:Rise of Skywalker and the Jurassic World movies were garbage.

Detective Pikachu and Kong: Skull Island were pretty good.

So no idea how to feel about this. I assume multiple writers were involved on all of these movies, so it's hard to gauge if this is good or bad.

Pretty much my stance. Not an optimistic sign in my opinion, but we'll see what happens

Detective Pikachu was awful, and that was even seeing it in the cinema in Japan. Oh well, even people that write stinkers may actually write a good one at some point.

Kong: Skull Island was pretty solid, Jurassic World and Detective Pikachu were okay, and the less said about Rise of Skywalker, the better.

I like the posters optimism.

But this is absolute bad news.
Detective Pikachu was a joke. All of the Jurassic World movies were garbage storywise, 0.0 creative thought and military combat raptor... TRASH guys, expect more from a big budget movie. Go watch Godzilla Minus One.

Rise of Skywalker, holy hell gusy, average? Mid? It was terrible! Absolute garbage. It looked pretty, it made some cash on the last few 40 year old guys who had 1 crumble of hope left. But it was garbage. I am all the Jedi, a freaking measurement tool to pinpoint the location of McMuffin number 5 but only when the damn ship crashed on a planet... Guys, Killing Chewy only for 3 minutes in, he was on a different ship.

This guy is the worst, he is horrible and should never be hired again for anything above 1000 dollars.

Rise of the Beasts was a 4-5 out of 10. It was mid, again McMuffin hunting and bland as hell (watch filmento's review). So the bar is set low yet again. Not Last Knight low, that was just an insult.

I have zero f+k all hope on this movie. The whole theater cringed with the post credit scene about GI Joe. The Joe movies themselves are okay for popcorn fun but could be way, way better.

I have some hope for Transformers One.

And that High Moon Studios somehow comes back from the dead like Palpatine.

Looking at the movies he worked mentioned here, my opinion is:

-Rise of Skywalker: didn't like this one, but to be fair, its problem is bigger than the script. The trilogy had a lack of sinergy between the films.

-Jurassic World: Saw the first, only saw the ending of the second and saw the third. Overall goood, but they seen to depend on the callbacks to previous movies. Some of them are pretty cleaver. Some of the world building is cool. The new characters are hit or miss.

- Kong of The Skull Island: didn't see

-Detective Pikachu: a simple, but very well exectued story.


So he seens to be a writer capable of using callback to previous films, but their effectiveness depends on the main story.

I think he, the directorc and other parts of the movie, have a vision that can unite and usee their strong points, this can be a good movie.

Well, I'm reluctant to see this film or films. The Transformers are vastly superior. Any suggestion that GI Joe or Cobra have a realistic chance against them is ludicrous.

snavej wrote:Well, I'm reluctant to see this film or films. The Transformers are vastly superior. Any suggestion that GI Joe or Cobra have a realistic chance against them is ludicrous.

Like in the comics, they would be WITH them.

But even if the Joes and cobra would be 100% against the Transformers, if we go by the first 5 Bay movie rules, these human armies will be able to stand their ground against the bots pretty easily. Especially if they are not taken by surprise.

That's why in the Bayverse, being a robot in disguise is a must. And I really, really love that aspect of the Bayverse. This makes for much more interesting movies and it up the stakes for the principles of being hidden in plain sight.

Of course, the bots shouldn't be weaklings, but they shouldn't be gods either. A bot showing in town and making an unstoppable rampage is possible, but when the 6 stars wanted status take effect and the army come with their heavy weaponry, it should be game over for that bot unless it flee.

It will never happen, but I would LOVE to see a straight adaptation of G.I. Joe #138 to #142, which is the prequel to the G2 comics, and could be a prequel in the new TF/Joe live action series as well. It would be a very good way to introduce Megatron into this "new" continuity, and he wouldn't have to be a gun.

Its not too hard the imagine the GI Joe characters fighting the Transformers. You just have to imagine something similar to Sector Seven ,NEST, Cemetery Wind and TRA, from the previous films

Rodimus Prime wrote:It will never happen, but I would LOVE to see a straight adaptation of G.I. Joe #138 to #142, which is the prequel to the G2 comics, and could be a prequel in the new TF/Joe live action series as well. It would be a very good way to introduce Megatron into this "new" continuity, and he wouldn't have to be a gun.

I could see Cobra wanting to take Megatron from Hoover Dam being the event that attracts the Joes and the Autobots attention.

While Transformers One had a panel at SDCC, it quickly turned into a panel on how the GI Joe Crossover Film is not happening anytime soon. It was inevitable that questions on that movie would be asked since the Transformers One panel had both Chris Hemsworth and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, which are both attached to the Transformers GI Joe film.

You can read the full answers to the questions below, but here are the main takeaways:

- They have yet to find a key to make the movie work due to there being a lot of characters in such a crossover
- The film is still in its creative phase, they are still working on what story it could be
- Hemsworth is unsure about his role in that movie at this point, he even jokes about being both Optimus Prime and a GI Joe character, talking to himself
- Bonaventura admits that characterization of the Transformers characters is poorer in live action films than animated projects due to the cost of special effects, meaning less focus and dialogue on the Transformers characters
- They would like to make another solo GI Joe film

Di Bonaventura on where they are at with the Transformers GI Joe movie:

We are definitely in the process of figuring out how to integrate G.I. Joe and Transformers. We’re in the creative process. We really have not discovered the key to that yet because one of the difficulties with it is there are so many characters that you feel you have to service, and when you do that, you never really deliver any good characters. So the trick here is to figure out how do you combine these two worlds with the least number of people or robots? That’s where it’s a big trick that we’re trying to figure out. So, we’re working with that.

Chris Hemsworth on his inclusion in the planned Live Action Movie.

“I don’t know yet,” Hemsworth admitted. “I keep getting asked about that. [Producer] Lorenzo [di Bonaventura] had brought it up when I was recording this film … and we started talking about where the universe could expand and how fun it could be. And look, I’m just down for great filmmakers, great scripts, great stories. There’s a lot of potential in this universe, in both the G.I. Joe world and the Transformers world, to recreate, try something different.”

***

“We’ve had an early conversations about it, and about what the world has to offer, and I think there’s some really fun opportunities to expand the universe. Nothing official yet, it’s been in early creative discussions. But who knows? We’ll see. I love this experience. I loved working with Lorenzo Bonaventura and Paramount, I worked with Paramount years ago. But Lorenzo I’ve known for a lot of years and he’s just such a great creative partner.

[It would be] really fun to give something to audiences that’s a new take and something fresh. I’m not even sure [who I would play]. I was like, “Am I going to be, like, talking to myself? Am I still going to play Optimus Prime and then switch over to G.I. Joe? Do I get paid twice? What’s happening here?” That’s the important question.”

Di Bonaventura on standalone G.I. Joe movies:

We do intend to bring back G.I. Joe, a standalone. We’ve created a complication for ourselves because we just did the [Transformers: One] animated movie, and to our wonder and to our real happiness, because there are no human characters in the animated movie, the characters of the robots are so much more sophisticated around it. They cost too much in live-action, so we’re always trying to figure out how few words we can get from that, whereas, the animation is all the same. So, we’ve set a third problem for ourselves here, which is now the audience would be disappointed if we return to the same level of characterization we’ve had up to now.

Source is Entertainment Weekly: https://ew.com/chris-hemsworth-clarifie ... 24-8684201

Its good that they are taking their time to find the right angle for this movie. There is no rush to build a cinematic universe.

I mean they haven't figured out how to make a GI Joe movie and are hit and miss with Transformers movies... soooooo

"The Key to Make the Transformers GI Joe Crossover Movie Work"

Hmmmmmmm...



Scarlett Johansson as Marissa Faireborn?


Somehow strikes me as a bit more plausible after the big MCU announcement at SDCC.

Bumblevivisector wrote:"The Key to Make the Transformers GI Joe Crossover Movie Work"

Hmmmmmmm...



Scarlett Johansson as Marissa Faireborn?


Somehow strikes me as a bit more plausible after the big MCU announcement at SDCC.

I was thinking Scarlett as Scarlett

This story is about to open a can of worms. As was reported, Steven Caple Jr was interested in continuing his story after Rise of the Beasts, getting ready for the GI Joe crossover film. However, when the project was announced at Cinemacon, only Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Steven Spielberg were were confirmed as attached with the project, with Di Bonaventura now being the principle producer of the film.

So where was Caple Jr? Well, it turns out that he left the project and is now going to direct I Am Legend 2. Now, not only do we have the confirmation of his departure (along with Di Bonaventura's confirmation of their current aimlessness), we also have the reason as to why. It seems Caple Jr and Di Bonaventura got into some heated arguments. He left after a Di Bonaventura went on a power trip of sorts, telling Caple Jr that he should be grateful for being on this project. The article below also claims some racially tinged dialogue was said by Di Bonaventura though it was not been confirmed by either involved, and their representatives have since denied this, instead referring to the exchange as a "heated negotiation that went south."

Below are all the details from the InSneider:

That said, there’s another reason that Caple landed the I Am Legend 2 gig, and that’s because he was available after turning down the chance to direct the Transformers-G.I. Joe movie for Paramount. And why was he available?

I’m told by multiple sources it’s because he got into a heated argument with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and walked away from the project.

I’m not going to get into the specifics of what I heard, but suffice it to say, I’m told that some of DiBonaventura’s comments were interpreted as racially-tinged and that the old-school producer — di Bonaventura is 67 years old — suggested Caple should be more grateful for the opportunity to direct the big-budget crossover movie, which is slated to star Chris Hemsworth.

Both Caple and di Bonaventura are represented by CAA, which denied that any incident occurred, with one agency insider suggesting it was merely a heated negotiation that went south — nothing out of the ordinary in the cutthroat world of Hollywood.

I’m certainly not suggesting that di Bonaventura is racist or anything like that, but I think we’re all guilty of micro-aggressions and things like that from time to time. From what I’ve been told by several different parties, it certainly sounds like that’s what happened here… at the very least.

I'm not at all surprised. Di Bonaventura needs to be taken as far away from the franchise as he can go.

I'm actually surprised stuff like this doesn't happen more often. Movie producers/directors tend to be even more egomaniacal than the super-villians they portray in their movies. It's inevitable that there will be head-butting and kerfuffles aplenty.

You'd never see me defending Di Bonaventura, but I honestly thought Caple Jr. was not the best choice for ROTB. It was too "Brooklyn, Baby!" focused for no good reasons, biting into too much TF lore/characters than he can chew ("I just want to see Unicron on screen!") and the whole Peru segment was such a waste (but the good thing was that the filming must've brought some good economic benefit to the region, so credits for that). Caple Jr. himself said he struggled mightily with the CG in post. It's just too "meh" with the only thing good about it are the good bot designs for me to collect in physical forms.

So I can imagine Di Bonaventura might rather subconsciously want to look for another director to handle the TFxJoe movie. Racist? Might be, but most likely not. Still, I'd be happy he'd shut up and Paramount just pass the projects on to another producer that knows & love the franchises to do a better job than him.

These things just happen so often in Hollywood, it's no big deal - nor a big lost to live-action TF franchise specifically - really?

Yeah, that's a good move. Caple Jr. shouldn't have directed RoTB, his focus and motivation wasn't beneficial for the Transformers characters. He's a mediocre director to begin with. Hopefully his replacement will have the best interests of the franchise(s) in mind, instead of what we got with RoTB.

Realistically, they should just not do the GI Joe/TF movie.

Lorenzeholio Strikes again!

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, that's a good move. Caple Jr. shouldn't have directed RoTB, his focus and motivation wasn't beneficial for the Transformers characters. He's a mediocre director to begin with. Hopefully his replacement will have the best interests of the franchise(s) in mind, instead of what we got with RoTB.

Hi Lorenzeholio, didn't know you had an account here.

SkyFire Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, that's a good move. Caple Jr. shouldn't have directed RoTB, his focus and motivation wasn't beneficial for the Transformers characters. He's a mediocre director to begin with. Hopefully his replacement will have the best interests of the franchise(s) in mind, instead of what we got with RoTB.

Hi Lorenzeholio, didn't know you had an account here.

Are you going to be alright? Do you need a safe space?

Until Steve or Lorenzo talk about this themselves, I'm taking this story with a grain of salt.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Realistically, they should just not do the GI Joe/TF movie.

That is also a choice. If the ideas are not coming together, they could drop it. Its not like they are obliged to make this crossover.

Imo, before they go nut with a TF-Joe movie, they should make a trilogy of pure GI Joe movies. And yes, reboot the whole thing. The previous movies were trash.

And if they do restart the series, please make the movies PG-13 at the very most. Please respect the classic designs. Have a few nods to the classic cartoon by not taking yourself too seriously.

Then, once the universe and characters are well established, THEN we could add Transformers to the mix.

Agree with Rodimus. ROTB was mid, horribly average. The CGI was weak/bad, the story was something a kid can write. There was little tension, it was just forgettable.

Get a new director, a way better one and an actual writer.

Once someone drops the word racism there's a whole platoon of people eating it up. So tired of that.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Realistically, they should just not do the GI Joe/TF movie.

I'm inclined to agree. Both franchises have had a rather cursed history when it's come to crossovers between the two. If a G.I. Joe x Transformers movie crossover is desired so badly, there needs to be a status quo to work from first rather than straight out of the gate.

Dumping the Bayverse, and those responsible for it, in its entirety would do so much for establishing a better foundation to work with as well.

noctorro wrote:Once someone drops the word racism there's a whole platoon of people eating it up. So tired of that.

It's a marketing strategy that is less and less effective as time pass. People are tired to get lectured to and they vote with their wallet. And so far, most movies and games that are using these tactics to do some buzz are crashing and burning.

Hollywood is a slow learner, but I think the message is finally getting across.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

SkyFire Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, that's a good move. Caple Jr. shouldn't have directed RoTB, his focus and motivation wasn't beneficial for the Transformers characters. He's a mediocre director to begin with. Hopefully his replacement will have the best interests of the franchise(s) in mind, instead of what we got with RoTB.

Hi Lorenzeholio, didn't know you had an account here.

Are you going to be alright? Do you need a safe space?

LOL sounds like some internet asshole trying to be all edgy. Only safe space for the trolls is 6 feet under the ground.

Yes I said it and I meant it.

Cyber Bishop wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

SkyFire Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, that's a good move. Caple Jr. shouldn't have directed RoTB, his focus and motivation wasn't beneficial for the Transformers characters. He's a mediocre director to begin with. Hopefully his replacement will have the best interests of the franchise(s) in mind, instead of what we got with RoTB.

Hi Lorenzeholio, didn't know you had an account here.

Are you going to be alright? Do you need a safe space?

LOL sounds like some internet asshole trying to be all edgy. Only safe space for the trolls is 6 feet under the ground.

Yes I said it and I meant it.

Didn't even spell the insult correctly. Should be Lorenzoholio.

In at least the last ten to fifteen years I've yet to come across a single instance of DiBonaventura opening his mouth that didn't spark a huge headache. Every time he talks it ruins something. Every time.

Now set to direct I Am Legend 2, Caple Jr.'s departure underscores the unpredictable nature of Hollywood, where even the most promising projects can take unexpected turns. For more details, see the "Passport bio page" of the ongoing drama.

You can now put the Gi Joe X Transformers film in the development hell category. While it had some momentum with Chris Hemsworth joining the project and a writer attached, the departure of Caple Jr as director has brought the plans back to square one. We know this from a recent interview with Lorenzo di Bonaventura who is spearheading this film's development.

This interview is from Screen rant who he said this to:

Live-action we are going to deliver a G.I. Joe crossover. I hesitate using the word crossover because I think people think different things about what that means. For me, what it means is the Joes are going to be in the Transformers world and be present. I think every movie is sort of a balancing act of "How much do you have this? And in this movie, how funny can we be? How serious? How do you cross that line? How do you hide the villain?" All those sort of balancing things that you're doing. We're still in the early process, in a way, of trying to figure out the balance.

Sounds like they only have the concept of a plan as of now. While this is more of a nothing burger story, what we can gather from this is that the film is nowhere close to being filmed as they don't even have any major plot details hashed out for it yet. So anyone looking forward to this film should be very very patient.

They can keep that one, whew

Haha concept of a plan, been dying to use that line myself

SkyFire Prime wrote:Haha concept of a plan, been dying to use that line myself

Great minds think alike.

But yeah when I read that Di Bonaventura word salad, that line came to mind right away.