2008 SDCC Day 1: G.I.Joe Panel

As Hasbro ramps up for the summer 2009 blockbuster movie release of G.I. Joe from Paramount Pictures, film producers Lorenzo Di Bonventura and Brian Goldner, also Hasbro’s CEO, will be joined by writer Stuart Beattie and creative consultant Larry Hama to discuss how they are bringing the legendary G.I. Joe vs. Cobra saga and its characters to life for fans around the world. Also, Aaron Archer (Hasbro Design), Michelino Paolino (Hasbro Design), Michael Ritchie (Hasbro Marketing), and producer Joaquim Dos Santos discuss the recently announced “G.I. Joe: Resolute,” animated online series.

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- Hasbro is showing the preview for G.I.Joe Resolute that was shown at JoeCon. This will be shown on the web in 5 minute episodes. They are working with partners to get this on television and DVD.

- Destro is going to have a robotic arm. Warren Ellis is writing the series. He sent a message along that he is sitting in his living room in England naked collecting Hasbro's money (jk)

- Some images for the series coming up.

- Larry Hama is introduced. He is working on the new comic from IDW and as a consultant for the movie. Stuart Beattie also is introduced. He is the writer for the movie.

- The movie has a bad guy plot carrying you through the movie but not a single character plot that drives it, because there are so many things going on with the movies and they were able to tap into Larry for input on this.

- To some extent, they also look at it from the point of what can be not what was. Stuart like simple plots and not making the plotting so complex. The movie has lots of twists and turns. Where he really wanted to spend the time was with the characters.

- Stuart grew up on the comics and stuff for G.I.Joe.

- You get to meet Cobra Commander for the first time, and Duke and Ripcord will be our eyes and ears throughout the movie. They are not members of G.I.Joe at first.

- Dennis Quaid was so good with his role of Hawk they added like 10 additional scenes for him in this movie.

- Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow will get to flex their muscles in this movie.

- Scarlett is really smart but doesn't really understand men or her sex appeal. They look at her as the girl who graduated college at age 12.

- Baroness will have a relationship with Duke. They were almost married, and she has a lot of anger towards Duke.

- Ripcord and Scarlett have some fun flirty relationships. There are two romances with completely different dynamics.

- Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes first met when they were 10 years old.

- There are 4 huge action sequences in the movie.

- The Pitt is huge, and they had a bigger budget on this movie than they did for the first Transformers movie.

- They have a accelerator suit that allows a man to run 50 MPH. This leads to a big car chase scene.

- They went with Heavy Duty over Roadblock because Stuart just found HD more appealing. He might work Roadblock into the next movie if there is one.

- There is some relationship with Scarlett and Snake, but it was very hard to do with a character that doesn't talk. There is a triangle that develops between Scarlett, Snake-Eyes and Ripcord.

- The four action scenes will end up lasting over 10 minutes each. Maybe even 15-20 mins.

- Resolute toys will make its way to toylines in the Spring. In the Summer though, most the focus will be on the movie toys.

- Big plans for more animation after Resolute and the movie are being worked on now.

- Warren Ellis was chosen for the cartoon to usher in the PG-13 type feel for this series. His style is all over the project within reason.

- The cartoon is not being watered down for kids. If it gets to TV, look for it to air later at night after kids have gone to bed.

- IDW is the new comic partner for G.I.Joe. doing movie and regular comics and taking 25 years of history and establishing a new baseline history.

- Lots of vehicles from the movie will be made into toys. Some from Resolute also will be made for toys.

- They showed the trailer again. The panel ends. Stay tuned for more images.

More to images come……