It’s official: Danny McBride is directing the new G.I. Joe movie for Paramount.
The Hollywood Reporter confirms McBride, who already wrote the screenplay, is now attached to direct the untitled film, which will mark his feature directorial debut following episodes of The Righteous Gemstones for HBO.
The trade confirmation lands just after we reported what insider Daniel Richtman said via his Patreon, that McBride would write and direct the movie, with Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, and Walton Goggins eyed for main roles.
THR doesn’t touch the casting, so file those names under rumor for now, but Richtman just went one-for-one on the directing news.
A Top Priority For The Ellisons
Per THR, a G.I. Joe feature is one of the big priorities at Paramount, with David Ellison ramping up development on major IP and brands including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek, and some titles moving on multiple development tracks.
That matches what our sources told us about the Ellisons’ big event movie strategy and our report that two G.I. Joe movies were in development.
THR also notes the second script, from Max Landis, is not moving ahead, as we covered when Paramount passed on it.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, per the trade, but McBride already spilled the big ones himself.
What We Know About McBride’s G.I. Joe
McBride confirmed to Josh Horowitz that his finished script follows Duke and a group of Joes in Springfield, the town from the Larry Hama comics that is secretly run entirely by Cobra, and that Paramount could be shooting next year.
“It grounds G.I. Joe. It’s not a comedy. It’s like kind of suspense and action,” McBride said, adding he wrote the script with his Gemstones collaborators Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri and that “some pretty interesting people” are lining up to be in it.
McBride grew up on the cartoons and comics, calling G.I. Joe his childhood obsession over Star Wars and everything else. Now the lifelong fan is directing the franchise relaunch himself, with a script Paramount is reportedly fired up about and A-list names circling.
Paramount previously released G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), and the Snake Eyes spinoff (2021), and has been looking to reboot the franchise ever since.
