Lorenzo di Bonaventura Talks G.I. Joe, Transformers 2

Producer soothes fans' concerns from atop a giant stack of money.

by | January 9, 2008 | Comments

You think G.I. Joe and Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura doesn’t hear your grousing, film fans? Well, he does — and fortunately for you, he isn’t the type of unimaginably wealthy mogul to hold a grudge.

He proved it with an exclusive interview with IESB, posted yesterday, in which he dished freely on both G.I. Joe and Transformers 2, responding to fans’ questions and concerns about both projects. His first order of business? Going to the mat for Marlon Wayans, recently announced as Joe HALO jumper Ripcord:

A lot of people are fans of his from the comedic point of view obviously for all the right reasons, but what I think everybody forgets about is how damn good he was in Requiem for a Dream as an actor. And when we were trying to figure out who would be the right element to make this combination work…we needed a guy who’s gonna be funny, and we needed a guy who was going to be a good actor. And we went to Marlon and said, “We’d love to talk to you.” And he’s a gigantic G.I. Joe fan, and immediately asked, “is Cobra in it, is Destro in it?” I mean, before he even got to read the script he was so much fun to talk to, because he understood what it was. So he got it immediately, and when we did the test, you know, we all looked at each other and the studio and there isn’t one person who didn’t think it was a no-brainer…I think the fans will feel, when they see him, that he is playing the solider that they anticipate anyone from the G.I. Joe group to be.

After dismissing rumors of Viggo Mortensen‘s involvement (“I think he’s a great actor, but I think he’s too old, don’t you?”), di Bonaventura promised more casting announcements in the immediate future: Destro and Hawk in “the next two weeks,” and Zartan “within the next week, week and a half.”

Rumors of the Joe team working out of Brussels were also discussed (“false”), the film’s Duke was described as “the embodiment of G.I. Joe, pre-’83,” and the producer issued the following message to fans:

I would say, just like in Transformers, our intention and our hope and our practice is to give the fans an experience that resembles the one they grew up with, but also moves it forward into the filmmaking styles and concepts and creative abilities that we can do today.

Speaking of Transformers, work on the sequel is slated to begin June 2, but — in a quote that doubtless made dozens of critics chuckle — di Bonaventura noted that Transformers 2 can’t really proceed until the strike is over, because “we’ve got to get some writers to help us.”

There’s plenty more where that came from — to read the rest of IESB‘s interview with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, follow the link below!

Source: IESB