Like a child who missed the memo about Ninja Turtles action figures in 1989, Hasbro remains weirdly fixated on its G.I. Joes, and insistent that someone (and, specifically, a Hollywood filmmaker with some measure of established reputation) come and play with them. This is per THR, which reports that Danny McBride has become the latest big kid to get lured over to the toy company’s house with promises that he can make all the mess he wants, Hasbro’s mom doesn’t even care. Which is to say that the Righteous Gemstones star has reportedly been tapped to direct the latest attempt to bring the long-running toy brand to the silver screen—a move that would make for the well-known writer, actor, and producer’s feature directorial debut.
Although it’s managed to get three Joes movies into theaters this century (including 2021 box office bomb Snake Eyes), Hasbro’s most recent efforts with the franchise have failed to get much traction, as when it tapped, and then pretty swiftly untapped, Max Landis to write a film treatment for the series. We suspect the general generic-ness of the franchise is a bit of a sticking point here; unless you’re going full ’80s cartoon with it, and giving every single cast member a fun regional hat and dialect, it’s pretty easy for the Joes to blend together, while Big Hollywood has so far resisted the urge to go full “Guy screeching at the top of his lungs about what hideous fools his lackeys are” for regular bad guy Cobra Commander.
McBride, for his part, is full Gung-Ho (Gung-Ho is the name of a G.I. Joe) to tackle the franchise, having already been on board to write the screenplay for the film. (In fact—per an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McBride is such a G.I. Joe nerd that he initially pitched Paramount on a movie centered on the Dreadnoks, a minor set of bad guys from the franchise; the studio suggested they might want to get a Joes film franchise actually up and running before diving quite so deep into the lore.) Although official plot details are under wraps, McBride did drop a few tidbits, including the fact that this more “grounded” take on the franchise will center on one of the more interestingly subversive bits of Joe comics history: The town of Springfield, a seemingly idyllic American town whose entire population has been indoctrinated into Cobra’s evil beliefs.
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