...and, The Film is 1 Hour 47 Minutes

[FCEEVIPER]

Exclusive - Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura talks G.I. JOE THE RISE OF COBRA - Says the Film is 1 Hour 47 Minutes
by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub Posted:June 23rd, 2009 at 10:35 pm



Yesterday I posted the first part of my exclusive interview with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and after the jump is part two. In this part, Lorenzo and I discussed “G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra”, what’s up with “Beverly Hills Cop 4″ and Jack Ryan, and he told me all about a project called “Red” - which sounded like it’s getting ready to move forward.

The big news on “G.I. Joe” is the film is 1 hour and 47 minutes. He also said since the movie comes out so close to Comic-Con, don’t expect to see too much footage there. He also talked about why people should be excited to see it.

Regarding “Beverly Hills Cop 4″ and Jack Ryan, it’s all about the scripts…which aren’t ready to go yet.

Finally we talked about a project he has at Summit called “Red”. The film is based on the Warren Ellis graphic novel and it’s about an over the hill gang of CIA agents that have been put out to pasture and a situation occurs that brings back the gang. Lorenzo compares it to “Oceans 11″ and “Sneakers”.

For more on all the projects, you can watch the interview after the jump. Take a look:

Lorenzo di Bonaventura

* G.I. Joe talk - what can fans look forward to at Comic-Con

* I ask him to talk about what can fans look forward to in G.I. Joe and why people should be excited for it

* Says the final running time is 1 hr 47 minutes

* Beverly Hills Cop 4 - says another draft is coming in soon

* Jack Ryan - says a script is coming in for that as well

* Red - the Warren Ellis graphic novel - is bubbling right now. Meaning it’s moving forward. Says Summit Pictures is making it and it’s “close”.

* Lorenzo says “Red” is about an over the hill gang of CIA agents that have been put out to pasture and a situation occurs to the lead character and he brings back the gang. Compares it to “Oceans 11″ and “Sneakers”

* We talk about the recession and how it’s changed the industry


Video Here

Yo Joe?

 

[Timstuff]

After Transformers 2, I actually look forward to an action movie of somewhat more manageable size. I had a blast at TF2, but about half way though I felt like I was ready for a break.

 

[TheVileOne]

Not surprising.

Also not surprising there will be no representation at Con. It would be Stealth all over again.

They took Stealth to Con right before its release. Jamie Foxx was there for the panel and they made a big show of it. Fans weren't impressed though. Fans were basically going up to Jamie Foxx and asking him why he is in a dumb movie like this after RAY.

 

[FCEEVIPER]

A big paycheck.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah, but one thing fans didn't get is that he probably started working on or doing Stealth before Ray or was doing them close together. Ray comes out becomes a hit and wins him an Oscar and suddenly his profile goes up.

In Stealth, Fox isn't even the main character but the marketing treated him that way and tried to get audiences to believe he would have a bigger role.

 

[Timstuff]

Or, maybe Bonaventura is merely saying it like it is, and there's not really much point in making a grand hooplah at ComicCon for a movie that's only a few days away?

 

[Avalanche™]

i was hoping for 124minutes, but that better than a 93minute movie

 

[Timstuff]

If this movie does well enough to warrent a sequel (which it probably will), you can probably expect it to have a longer runtime, which is often the trend with franchise movies like this. I'd say just over 2 hours would be the ideal length.

 

[TheVileOne]

Or, maybe Bonaventura is merely saying it like it is, and there's not really much point in making a grand hooplah at ComicCon for a movie that's only a few days away?

Makes you wonder why they didn't make a hooplah in 2008 .

Timstuff, Fantastic Four got shorter with its sequel featuring Galactus AND Silver Surfer.

 

[Timstuff]

Yeah, but that's because it was Fox.

 

[Shadow-Guardian]

Well this is good news. An hour and 47 minutes of sweet G.I. Joeness.

 

[TheVileOne]

That's not very impressive, but whatever.

Sounds like they had to do a lot of chopping around like Stuart Baird did for Tomb Raider. Length of Paramount's Tomb Raider? 100 minutes.

 

[Timstuff]

Oh please. Are we still clinging to Don Murphy's scandalous little rant?

 

[terry78]

No movie based on a toyline/comic should really exceed two hours, honestly. There is way too much **** to cram into that timeframe, and drawing it out rarely does any good.

 

[TheVileOne]

Oh please. Are we still clinging to Don Murphy's scandalous little rant?

Don Murphy? So it was Don Murphy that said it now?

No movie based on a toyline/comic should really exceed two hours, honestly. There is way too much **** to cram into that timeframe, and drawing it out rarely does any good.

Based on what? Are you saying no comic movie should exceed two hours as well?

Why should any movie exceed two hours by this logic?

 

[terry78]

I mean when you have a property that has decades upon decades of canon, you can't squeeze it all into one movie. And making it three hours long to get all the little details sometimes is a catch 22.

 

[The Guard]

This seems like about the right amount. 13 minutes shy of two hours. It's about 7 minutes longer than 2000's X-MEN, which has a similar structure. The script is 120 pages long. They did a little trimming, I'm sure, but likely not that much, because there's also a lot of action in the script.

 

[Lighthouse]

I'm still not excited to see this movie, but keeping it under two hours is definitely a step in the right direction. Mindless action movies really shouldn't be any longer than 120 minutes.

 

[Snickers]

i was hoping for a bit over 2 hours

 

[Iron_Stark]

That isn't bad, at least it's not a 90 minute movie.

 

[M.E.H.Z.E.B]

That isn't bad, at least it's not a 90 minute movie.

Yeah, just 17 minutes more.

 

[TheVileOne]

This seems like about the right amount. 13 minutes shy of two hours. It's about 7 minutes longer than 2000's X-MEN, which has a similar structure. The script is 120 pages long. They did a little trimming, I'm sure, but likely not that much, because there's also a lot of action in the script.

The first X-men movie was 104 minutes with credits.

 

[The Guard]

So it's about 3 minutes longer than X-MEN and I suck at math and recognizing basic shapes. My point about similarities in structure stands.

 

[TheVileOne]

X-men was hardly an action packed balls to the wall script. They didn't set out to make an action movie. GI JOE will be more like the garbage FF movies from Fox.

 

[Nirvana]

For those who've read the script, what's this movie looking to be rated?