At one point D.J. Caruso had been lined up to direct ‘G.I. Joe 3‘ before backing out to tackle ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’ and we’ve just learned that his pitch for the film had the Joes meeting up with the Transformers! There is quite a bit of precedent here as the two franchises have crossed paths in a few mediums so far but sadly this crossover clearly never panned out on the big screen. With the ‘Transformers’ franchise set to grow exponentially over the next few years, it wouldn’t surprise me if this idea might end up coming to fruition down the line.
So, whatever did happen with Caruso’s take on the film prior to switching to the latest installment of the xXx franchise?
“Before I started this movie I had a couple meetings with Dwayne and the studio about what could happen with G.I. Joe. The franchise has been fairly successful, but there’s something about it that’s just not fully, fully clicking.”
When the interviewer stated that mixing in the Transformers could really make it work, Caruso responded with:
“Well yeah but they’re not ready to do [G.I. Joe meets Transformers] yet. That’s exactly what they should do but they’re not ready to do that because in fact the script that I was developing, the two worlds sort of collided at the end and when they read it they were like, ‘We’re not ready to do this yet.’… They will eventually collide those two worlds and it’s probably when Mr. Bay decides he’s done with Transformers.”
As Bay is in the middle of making a huge set of stand alone and group films for the Transformers it might be hard to fit in staying on point with the Joes in the mix as well, though it is a crossover that could be really fun to watch. With the third G.I. Joe film still in limbo it sounds as if Caruso is planning on speaking to Paramount again once ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’ hits the big screen:
“It came close but I think what the studio was trying to do was reassess it and so now they’re back to the drawing board, and we’ll be talking again about it. It’s a valuable franchise—[it’s] not that they didn’t get it right, they just wanna really get it right and see if they can push it to the next level.”
Do you think Caruso would be a good guiding hand for the future of the ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise? Are his ideas of finding a way to bring the ‘Transformers’ into the mix just a messy idea or is this an interconnected universe that your love of all things 80’s being reimaged for today would love to check out? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Collider
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
