SFGate has posted an article about Stuart Beattie, the screenwriter for G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra. After years of screenwriting, he is finally getting the recognition he deserves:
Stuart Beattie knows better than most the rude realities of screenwriting credits. He created the Jack Sparrow character in his early draft of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” but received no “written by” attribution. On Russell Crowe’s “3:10 to Yuma,” Beattie spent 18 months crafting an updated version of the 1957 Western and again got snubbed. But for “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” Beattie boasts top billing as primary author of the action-movie screenplay.
Hired to crank out a script in six weeks to beat the 2007 writers strike deadline, Beattie bulldozed through a basic story structure celebrating the iconic action figure’s “can-do spirit,” he recalls. “The producers started giving me ideas – Pakistan, Afghanistan, al Qaeda, jihad – and I said: ‘That’s not G.I. Joe. He’s a fantasy. You don’t want to be calling out news headlines.’ ”
Post-strike, Beattie took up daily residence on the “G.I. Joe” set, where he pounded out scene rewrites minutes before cameras began rolling. “It was crazy,” he says. ” I remember being at home once at 7:30 in the morning when I got a call from the set: ‘We need a line! We need a line!’ They were just standing around the set waiting to shoot and needed dialogue. It literally went that fast.”
Beattie’s most notable contribution to the movie’s succession of action sequences centers on the collapse of the Eiffel Tower. “That idea came from the G.I. Joe universe, which talks about these warheads that eat metal,” he says. “I asked myself, ‘What’s the most iconic structure in the world that’s made of metal?’ and you instantly think of the Eiffel Tower. Everyone loved the idea of seeing the Eiffel Tower toppled. It survived all these wars, it survived Hitler, but it didn’t survive ‘G.I. Joe.’
Shin Densetsu says
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Viper Patrol says
This is the dude to blame for the crap pile movie screen play!!! Screw this guy, the movie sucks!! At least 3:10 To Yuma was way better. He should have gone with the earlier direction suggested to him... Pakistan, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Jihad. The screen play in the new movie is painstakingly awful!!! Pure garbage. What a waste.
CrimsonGuard101 says
Another Asshat, brilliant just throw it together and rush to the set and give them more rushed rubish great job...would have been better if they had waited till the stupid strike was over..oh well they would have ruined it anyway..let it come and go away very quickly...almost here...almost gone...
Mr. Gone says
I will go on record and confess I am not a big fan of the direction I see this movie headed. From clips, to screenplay, to script, to gossip, to facts, to everything.
Now that I see that it was literally rushed, makes it all the more a pain in my heart.
Goldface says
Beattie says: "The producers started giving me ideas - Pakistan, Afghanistan, al Qaeda, jihad - and I said: 'That's not G.I. Joe. He's a fantasy. You don't want to be calling out news headlines.' "
This guy obviously doesn't know a thing about G.I.Joe ARAH comics at all.All he had to do is read issues 6 and 7 to read about Afghanistan, U.S.S.R and Pakistan.
They also keep calling G.I.Joe a fantasy...just an excuse for that crap called ROC.
This guy and Lorenzo are the two biggest culprits for this movie being too Sci-Fi and U.N.Joe.
Crimson Rage says
So much hate from one person for something so ultimately unimportant. Sad really...
Seriously though, if you can't bring yourself to just move on you'll give yourself an ulcer.
Life4Dreadnok says
I am betting this guy will live to regret ROC as being his first.. and likely only, movie credit. The photo of him confirms that he is the douche that I thought he probably was.
Monkeywrench says
what a douche
COBRA TROOPER says
Wow!! I don't think I would admit that they just threw this thing together.
Shogi says
This guy obviously doesn't know a thing about G.I.Joe ARAH comics at all.All he had to do is read issues 6 and 7 to read about Afghanistan, U.S.S.R and Pakistan.
They also keep calling G.I.Joe a fantasy...just an excuse for that crap called ROC.
This guy and Lorenzo are the two biggest culprits for this movie being too Sci-Fi and U.N.Joe.
I will admit that the comic did have realistically themed battles in real world areas, but for a movie you'd probably want to focus more on GI Joe vs Cobra rather than the Joe Team fighting rebels in Sierra Gordo or else all the fans would be upset that they made GI Joe with no Cobra or Destro. I'm sure the writter didn't want them to just make some generic war movie that only focused on a military team that's in Afghanistan, this also keeps the story more timeless instead of seeing a desert war and thinking oh, this movie must have been made in the 90's-00's
Keep reading: Stuart Beattie Gets Top Billing For ROC - Page 2
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