Paramount Pictures has tapped Max Landis to pen a script for a new G.I. Joe movie after the studio reportedly outbid Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a seismic shift for the entertainment industry.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has also hired Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones, This Is the End) to work on a separate treatment for a feature adaptation of the Hasbro toy brand.
The studio reportedly plans to merge the two scripts into one, though there have been rumblings about the Landis and McBride G.I. Joe scripts being separate projects. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is said to be producing the Joe movies.
“Both projects are merely treatments in deep development at this stage, and while there’s the possibility it makes just one of the scripts into a film or even both of them, it’s just as likely Paramount ends up making neither,” IndieWire reported.
The second installment in the G.I. Joe franchise, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, starred former WWE Champion–turned–Hollywood megastar Dwayne ‘The Rock‘ Johnson and grossed more than $300 million at the box office.
Max Landis has a past connection to the pro wrestling business
Wrestling fans may be familiar with Landis as the director behind the 2015 short film Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling, which highlights the drama of WWE and one of its most popular names, current Chief Content Officer Paul ‘Triple H‘ Levesque.
Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling features dozens of special appearances, including cameos from wrestlers Joey Ryan, John Hennigan (Morrison), Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, Chris Hero, Becky Bayless, former WWE announcer Justin Roberts, Colt Cabana, JTG and Shad Gaspard, Ryan Nemeth and many others, as well as Seth Green, David Arquette and more.
Landis also has writing credits for major projects, including the found-footage film Chronicle and the Will Smith fantasy movie Bright. His career declined at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2019 after eight women came forward with accusations of emotional and sexual abuse in a report by The Daily Beast.
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