Yesterday FilmForce published an exclusive report stating that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is turning Hasbro's G.I. JOE toy franchise into a live-action movie. FilmForce also reports that the script will be done by writer Michael Gordon and that while deals for both men are complete, an announcement may be published in the movie trade magazines sometime in February.

Also mentioned was that the movie will utilize characters from the popular 1980s cartoon series and not so much the modern day JOE line.


Thanks to the efforts of one of our sources, who has knowledge of the Bonaventura production, we've been told a general outline of the movie's storyline as it stands now plus which characters are in the film.


According to our source, the movie is more-or-less a prequel to the cartoon G.I. JOE series. Set before the rise of the COBRA organization, the film will show how the man the world will one day call Cobra Commander created his terrorist organization and honed it into a worldwide threat. Other COBRA characters, such as Destro and Stormshadow, are being planned to be included in the film. While Cobra Commander doesn't wear the costume he is best-known for during the bulk of the film (the blue COBRA garb complete with hood), by the conclusion of the film he will be decked out in it.


As for who is on the JOE team, look for appearances by the team's main players, such as Duke, Hawk and Snake Eyes. In fact, one of the ideas being kicked around at this stage of story development is touching upon the origin of Snake Eyes and Stormshadow, albeit in a minor way. As fans of the cartoon series know, both ninja characters have their origins tied together.


Since the screenplay is in a constant state of flow, things could change and new characters could be introduced at any time. However, the primary guideline the G.I. JOE movie creators are using is to try and be as faithful to the '80s incarnation of the team as possible.