Sommers says “Yo Joe!”

It looks like we have an official answer to the question “Is he or isn’t he?” The answer: he is.

The question, if you were wondering, is “Will Stephen Sommers, the MUMMY mastermind and VAN HELSING assailant, direct the big-budget live-action G.I. JOE movie?” But after a lot of online waffling as to his participation status, it’s now official via the trades that Sommers has been drafted for duty behind the camera. Cheer or weep at your own discretion.

I’ll cut Sommers some leniency for the delicious cheese of DEEP RISING, but let’s hope Paramount and producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura let him play with Hasbro’s toys while keeping him away from any copies of Final Draft. There were a couple of other JOE scripts floating around (and didn’t seem to meet with much approval from the fan community), but the studio will apparently be starting from boot camp, even though they plan to get the movie rolling by February.

How will they make a “real American hero” more palatable to overseas audiences who might feel a little sour toward the US lately (for some curious reason)? Variety says: “G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer. The property is closer in tone to “X-Men” and James Bond than a war film.” Regardless, while the movie will likely involve a number of familiar kung-fu gripped figures like Snake Eyes, Scarlett and Duke, we probably won’t be seeing Serpentor or Cobra-La.