G.I. Joe 3

In a hundred years from now, when some bespectacled historian sits down to write the story of the G.I. Joe film franchise, the first sentence he’ll write will be, “Why did Paramount Pictures want so badly to get rid of Channing Tatum?” Then he’ll underline that sentence about a hundred different times, crinkle the whole page up into a ball, and throw that ball back into his desk drawer. In hindsight, he’s got a lot of movies to write about and it wasn’t the brightest idea to start with G.I. Joe.

Despite two wildly different approaches with ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’ and ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation,’ Paramount still hasn’t managed to get their big screen take on everyone’s second favorite ‘80s toy/cartoon franchise right (with the first being ‘Transformers,’ of course). The box office has been decent, but fan reaction has been middling at best, with everyone in the world giving both films a big ‘ol shrug. But Paramount is not giving up on this potential gold mine yet! It seems that they have some pretty wacky plans to make ‘G.I. Joe 3’ into a must-see experience, including two familiar villains and a crossover with the characters from ‘M.A.S.K.’

Although Paramount has ‘G.I. Joe 3’ slated for a 2016 release date, the upcoming sequel still doesn’t have a director. ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ director Jon M. Chu declined to return for the third installment, and we’d previously heard rumors that ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Green Lantern’ director Martin Campbell was in talks to take over. Today brings another update, as Paramount may have found their man in D.J. Caruso.

It's been some time since we've gotten an update on 'G.I. Joe 3,' but don't worry—Paramount hasn't forgotten the third installment in the franchise. Although 'Retaliation' director Jon M. Chu has redirected his attention toward dance films, the third 'Joe' film already has a screenplay and has been searching for Chu's replacement. A new report suggests that Paramount's top choice is Martin Campbell, best known for directing the James Bond flick 'Casino Royale' and 'Green Lantern.'

We've been hearing buzz about some of Paramount's major plans for a while now, but the studio finally confirmed their 2016 release line-up recently at CineEurope (the European version of CinemaCon, a major theater convention), and included on the list are lots of sequels, like 'Beverly Hills Cop 4,' 'Transformers 5,' and -- wait, what's this? -- 'Paranormal Activity 5,' which has been bumped back once again.

'G.I. Joe 3' can now trudge on ahead, as the follow-up to 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' has found its writer in Evan Daugherty of 'Snow White and the Huntsman.'

How exactly do you make a 'Masters of the Universe' movie? How do you take a franchise where the main character is named He-Man (He-Man!) and make a movie that audiences will actually take seriously enough to give it the time of day? That's the big challenge for director Jon M. Chu, who is knee-deep in developing the project following the success of his 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' but who says he is &

Though a release date hasn't yet been announced, Jon M. Chu is already talking up 'G.I. Joe 3' at Comic-Con 2013. And if there's one place you want to start promoting your geek-friendly property, Comic-Con is where you want to be. Chu dropped a couple of hints about characters we might see return and expanding the scope of the film to be even bigger and crazier than before.

'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' was rumored to have a troubled post-production, which made director Jon M. Chu (who at that point was best known for directing 'Step Up' sequels and a Justin Bieber documentary) look out of his depth. The film turned out to be a huge success, so it's not surprising to hear Chu's the current frontrunner for directing duties on 'G.I. Joe 3.'

Here's a sentence we never thought we'd type: 'G.I. Joe 3' is moving forward at Paramount and Hasbro. It's not that we didn't want a 'G.I. Joe 3' but after 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' was pushed back over nine months amid rumors of a major bomb, we were just beginning to think we were the only ones who wanted a 'G.I. Joe 3.' But 'Retaliation' made a surprising $41 million at the box office and now the