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Paramount Pictures and Danny McBride are putting up their Duke.
Bradley Cooper has signed on for military duty to star in Paramount’s new and untitled G.I. Joe feature.
McBride, known primarily as an actor and for his work as creator of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, is directing the project. He also wrote the script, along with Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri.
Little is known about the new take on the Hasbro property, a toy line that gained its modern relevance from a relaunch that included a cartoon series and a Marvel Comics comic in the 1980s. (It was first launched in mid-1960s as a realistic soldier toy.)
It was this version that not only introduced a commando strike force featuring soldiers with monikers such as Duke, Roadblock and Snake Eyes but also its over-the-top, hi-tech adversary, the terrorist organization known as Cobra, with key bad guys including Cobra Commander, Baroness, Destro and Zartan.
Cooper will play Duke, the nominal leader of the Joes. The character was played by Channing Tatum in the live-action movies G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, released by Paramount in 2009 and 2013, respectively.
The Joe feature has been one of the big priorities at the studio, which, under new owner David Ellison, has been ramping up development of major IP and brands such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek. Securing Cooper as the lead of what will be an ensemble signals that, among the IP plays, the project may be the one that gets before cameras and presumably theaters first.
Producing are Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian and Zev Foreman of Hasbro Entertainment.
G.I. Joe is a rare IP play for Cooper, whose last major role was starring as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, the ambitious biopic he also co-wrote and directed, earning four Oscar nominations in the process. He also co-wrote and directed and co-starred in last year’s marital dramedy Is This Thing On?
Cooper is known as the voice of Rocket in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies and had a cameo in James Gunn’s Superman movie last year. He worked with McBride previously when he appeared in episode of Gemstones.
He is repped by Range Media.
