Artist Logan Lubera has shared a collection of unused concept art for G.I. Joe: Retaliation Flint.
According to the artist, Flint was originally supposed to lead the Joe team, but the position was later replaced by Roadblock. This may have been due to the star-power of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Also, the term ‘Battle Kata’ is used here once again.
“Some old school ink and paint; Concept art I drew for the GIJOE2 Movie while at previs building. ( edited to not confuse because we started this journey in a steamy hot loft in L.A on the Universal lot before continuing on set and in New Orleans ) Originally Flint was supposed to the lead of the movie and this was one of the first concept images I did to illustrate the “Battle Kata” armor and weapons I designed for the film. Lots of great work came out of this project and I met some amazing people!”
“When Hasbro and my lead Alan Roach offered me a chance to work embedded with the GIJOE team on toy and film I jumped. You can’t imagine the feeling and pride being asked to represent a company as vanguard for a property. I was nervous and excited. I was afraid that the amazing pros who did film concept would not really be happy having a “corporate” in the office working on concept design beside them. I had my own team and budget to contribute and Andrew Menzies and Paul Molles were super accommodating. Artist like Raj Rahal, Ben Proctor, Matthew Cunningham were super supportive, encouraging and helpful. Giving advice, brushes and software recommendations. Hasbro charged me with one challenge. Come up with a look that could be sent to other studios to help formulate a GIJOE combat uniform that was as unique as Cap’s was in the first Captain America film. These images of the system I designed and you see in the movie worn by The Rock was called “Battle Kata” system. A blend of military and Arashikage Ninja combat. The idea was our lead trained by Snake Eyes evolved a system of interlocking weapons. I will post another page of the weapons I concepted and various teams evolved.Here are the very first approved concepts we sent to everyone from Aaron Sim co, Massive Black, Six More Vodka, Volta and others. You will see many different ideas online but it started with these and Jon, Erik and Mr Goldner’s approval. Honored and humbled to contribute to a great cause”
You can check out the mirrored artwork, after the jump.
SilverOptimus says
News Post: G.I. Joe: Retaliation Unused Concept Art By Logan Lubera: Battle Kata Flint
books says
Cool! Thanks!
46 Zone says
I know there was that peg warmer, battle kata RB, but I don't remember seeing that weapons system in the movie. That would have made it easy for the toy makers if everyone had that system. Pretty boring for the collectors though. Those are nice drawings, but I'm glad they didn't make everyone have that system.
Yeet says
That's actually pretty neat!
jlw515 says
Knowing that they originally planned to have Flint as the leader and then changed it is kind of a bummer.
I have defended both of the movies for not being as bad as people make them out to be, but one thing I won't defend is Paramount's choice of using Dewayne Johnson to play Roadblock. Dewayne Johnson plays "The Rock" in every movie he's in. It's like he has one genre of acting and every role he gets is just like bad karaoke.
I wonder how much better Retaliation could have been if they would have stuck with Flint being the leader?
Jason
Adventure Fun says
Duke19821994 says
Man, this would have been awesome as a figure! Maybe a custom idea down the line...
Stygian says
Battle Kata, although not a terrible idea since it's natural that elite soldiers will learn from each other and mod their uniforms accordingly, missed the point of something as iconic as Captain America's uniform. If you're going for nostalgia with Joe, which one presumes you are since the property is decades old, you need something to tie their uniforms back to the era you're aligning with- assuming 80's RAH. Cap didn't have some generic battle (kata) soldier uniform. He was cap regardless of the look throughout all of the films he's been in- right colors, right homage to the various eras of the character, etc.
I've often felt that, other than Snake Eyes being a dead on look in Retaliation to his 80's persona, none of the Joes looks like they should and no characters stood out. Even in a soldier heavy film like Predator all of the soldiers stood out as unique, interesting and worth a back story of their own. I never once felt that the Predator eclipsed any of those soldiers and that was them in drab khaki's! Anyway, I think most Joe fans would agree... what both modern Joe films lacked was any familiarity to their 80's era looks... any familiarity (other than SE and maybe SS).
LEEE777 says
I have defended both of the movies for not being as bad as people make them out to be, but one thing I won't defend is Paramount's choice of using Dewayne Johnson to play Roadblock. Dewayne Johnson plays "The Rock" in every movie he's in. It's like he has one genre of acting and every role he gets is just like bad karaoke.
I wonder how much better Retaliation could have been if they would have stuck with Flint being the leader?
Jason
Zandar J says
I have defended both of the movies for not being as bad as people make them out to be, but one thing I won't defend is Paramount's choice of using Dewayne Johnson to play Roadblock. Dewayne Johnson plays "The Rock" in every movie he's in. It's like he has one genre of acting and every role he gets is just like bad karaoke.
I wonder how much better Retaliation could have been if they would have stuck with Flint being the leader?
Jason
Keep reading: G.I. Joe: Retaliation Unused Concept Art By Logan Lubera: Battle Kata Flint - Page 2
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