EDITORIALS

Rumor: Stephen Sommers Fired Mid-Way Through G.I. Joe?

by Alex Billington
June 11, 2009
Source: DonMurphy.net

This sounds like the kind of story we'd usually hear coming from Fox, but this time it's Paramount. A user on the Don Murphy Message Boards (via Latino Review) has posted an unverified story detailing a behind-the-scenes fiasco regarding the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie. You can read their full write-up below, but in essence they're claiming that director Stephen Sommers was fired and locked out of the editing room mid-way through post-production by a Paramount exec named Brad Weston. And that's just the start, as he goes on to explain everything that has transpired since Sommers was supposedly fired.

Update: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who is named as a part of this, talked with Latino Review and explained that most of this is false. I have posted a separate update to this story which can be found right here.

There's so much to this, that it's best to just read through it as it was written originally. So I've included the full post from the message boards below. Take a look below and see if it sounds too good to be true or not.

After a test screening wherein the film tested the lowest score ever from an audience in the history of Paramount, the executive who pushed for the movie Brad Weston had Stephen Sommers, the super hack director of the film fired. Removed. Locked out of the editing room.

Stuart Baird, a renowned "fixer" editor was brought it to try to see if it could be made releasable. Meanwhile producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura whose turkey IMAGINE THAT explodes this weekend as the new bomb in theatres (also championed by Weston) was told his services were no longer needed on the film either.

Sommers was then forced by his William Morris agents to pretend that he was working on Tarzan over at Warner Brothers doing design work, even though that film doesn't even have a good script yet. When word of the firing started to be whispered about in Hollywood, Sommers was summoned back to the editing room - but only to save appearances, Baird is still editing the movie with studio input.

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who turned down other offers from the property to go with the script that was rushed in 8 weeks by Stuart Beattie because of the writer's strike, is frantic that this will destroy the brand and is distancing himself from the pending catastrophe.

NONE of this needed to happen, except someone who did not know the mythology, Lorenzo was in charge of the film and never contradicted Sommers on anything. Lorenzo, so you know, was Chairman of Warners and had GI JOE under option there (not as a producer) for SEVEN years and he refused to greenlight the film, stating that because he grew up in Italy he had no knowledge of it. If you Google enough, at one point you will see he wanted the film to be about an action hero named MANN (Action Man, get it) and he clearly had no clue what the GI Joe world really was.

And the hapless hack Sommers? Where did he come from? The confused Jon Fogelman at William Morris, who signed Hasbro away from CAA, had to find a director in a hurry for his new clients and gave him the only guy who he repped who would do it. A sad end to what COULD have been a great franchise. Acceleration suits indeed.

Almost all of this checks out, except that according to IMDb, Sommers is now repped by Rob Carlson at William Morris, not Jon Fogelman. But that bit about Action Man is legit and so are all the other names.

If you thought that trailer looked terrible, now you know why. Or now we at least know what's going on. Who knows if Baird will be able to salvage this. Who knows if this story is even true at all. Unfortunately, I think those stupid accelerator suits can't be edited out by a "fixer." It's sad that this happens in Hollywood, but that's just how cutthroat crazy it is here. This isn't the first time we've heard a story like this - I remember the fiasco surrounding Live Free or Die Hard a few years ago. But it's unfortunate to see a studio like Paramount, who has had a great reputation the last few years, get hit with these kinds of problems.

I'm actually not surprised to hear that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra scored so poorly at a test screening. Everything I've seen has looked awful - I haven't enjoyed a single second of any of the footage I've watched (remember this?). I fear that this is going to be a huge embarrassment for Paramount in the end, which is quite a shame, because they don't deserve this. But as George Roush says, "that's what happens when you put people on a project they know nothing about." He says he's heard that most of this is true, which is, again, not surprising. Let's just say I don't expect August 7th to be a very memorable day for Paramount.

Update: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who is named as a part of this, talked with Latino Review and explained that most of this is false. I have posted a separate update to this story which can be found right here.

Filed under Editorial, Movie News, Rumors

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