I mean I knew that the movie making world was liberal...but come on now!

Monday, August 03, 2009 G.I. Joe Director: This is Not a George Bush MovieBy: Hank 9:56 AM - Link this post LOS ANGELES--The director of the new movie "G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra" thinks President Obama is "a Real American hero," but apparently wants Republicans to stay home.According to the Los Angeles Times:When it comes to selling "G.I. Joe" outside the U.S., the message is "this is not a George Bush movie -- it's an Obama world," director Stephen Sommers said. "Right from the writing stage we said to ourselves, this can't be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that's made up of the best of the best from around the world."Sommers, the director of such genre films as "the Mummy Returns" and "VanHelsing," is hoping that the film will appeal to international markets, where action films "often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales [but] rah-rah American sentiment doesn't play well," the paper noted.As a result, overseas advertising is playing up scenes from other countries and downplaying anything that could be seen as American patriotism.It's a different story in middle America, however. According to the Times, the film's creators are tying "G.I. Joe" to the military and country music:[The film] is embedded in the Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd concert tour, advertised at the Country Music Television Awards and excerpted on giant video screens at Minnesota's Mall of America. It is bombarding Kansas City, Charlotte, Columbus and Grand Rapids on new digital billboards.The subtext is none too subtle: Critics are likely to roast the film, and fanboys of the original toy line and comic book may be indifferent, but if you're a flag-waving, Nascar-loving American, it's practically your patriotic duty to see this movie.As a result, the big budget film is expected to open well. However, as the Joe heroes used to say "knowing is half the battle." Once audiences realize that the film is trying to market itself to two separate audiences it's possible that neither will be pleased with what's on the screen. http://www.federalreview.com/2009/08/gi-joe-director-this-is-not-george-bush.htmSo does that mean that 3/4 of the film consists of the President apologizing to Cobra Commander and Destro for "American arrogrance" and explaining how Serpentor is really just "some guy from the neighborhood"? Say it ain't so, G.I. Joe.The popular all-American comic-book military man and action figure dating back to the 1940s is undergoing a significant transformation for the Paramount Pictures-distributed "G.I. Joe" film, which begins production in February and is scheduled for release in summer 2009.No longer will G.I. Joe be a U.S. Special Forces soldier, the "Real American Hero" who, in his glory days, single-handedly won World War II.In the politically correct new millennium, G.I. Joe bears no resemblance to the original.Paramount has confirmed that in the movie, the name G.I. Joe will become an acronym for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity" — an international, coed task force charged with defeating bad guys. It will no longer stand for government issued, as in issued by the American government.The studio won't elaborate, saying filming hasn't begun and details are still in the works, but the behind-the-scenes rumblings are that the producers have decided to change the nature of G.I. Joe in order to appeal to a wider, more international audience.The word is that in the current political climate, they're afraid that a heroic U.S. soldier won't fly.Joe's transformation, however, isn't sitting well with diehard fans and military types."I find it outrageous that they'd want to drop everything American" from the character, said conservative blogger Warner Todd Huston, who wrote about the rumors this week on Newsbusters.org and his own blog. "That's nuts."Retired Army Col. David W. Hunt, a FOX News military and terrorism analyst, called the scheme to make a whole new Joe "a shame.""G.I. Joe is a U.S. guy," Hunt said. "What are we going to call it — Global Joe? International Joe? It's kind of stupid. It's ridiculous that they're doing that."Paramount wouldn't say whether an American would be part of the new "global entity," nor would it offer specifics about the storyline or the characters."It is too early to tell about plots. We just don't know that," Jessica Rovins, a marketing executive at Paramount, told FOXNews.com.But she did confirm the accuracy of an article that ran in the film trade publication Variety, which reported last week that G.I. Joe the soldier is being transformed into G.I.J.O.E. the task force.A Navy spokeswoman said the studio and film's writers have already approached people at the Pentagon for input."They had talked about what would be the best way forward, but without seeing a treatment we don’t know yet which way it’s going to go," Lt. Stephanie Murdock, a project officer in the Navy Office of Information West, told FOXNews.com. "We're definitely open to assisting them when they get around to asking us."But with no script in hand, she said, it's hard to gauge how the military feels about the characterization of G.I. Joe.The comic-book character and toy line have already undergone an evolution of sorts since Joe first won the hearts of American little boys — and some little girls — beginning in 1942 with the comic strip and in the early 1960s with the action figure.In the 1940s, he debuted as a comic-book hero in a strip that ran in U.S. military magazines during World War II.In the 1960s, G.I. Joe was a burly U.S. Special Forces soldier, the "Real American Hero" of both comic book and action figure fame. The doll had various versions and counterparts of different races and ethnicities, but he was clearly an American male soldier.In the post-Vietnam War era in the 1970s, Hasbro decided to downplay G.I. Joe's military theme by renaming the line "The Adventures of G.I. Joe" and recasting Joe as the leader of an adventure team charged with espionage missions and fighting evil.But in the 1980s, the toy company Hasbro made G.I. Joe more of a superhero and added a host of other action figures, expanding the line to include characters that made up a team of international operatives.Now some critics say the globalization of G.I. Joe has gone too far."G.I. Joe is not an international hero. That's crap," said Col. Hunt. "They don't have to water it down. That doesn't make sense."For blogger Huston, who played with G.I. Joe as a boy, transforming the entire character into an amorphous task force in the movie feels like a hit to his childhood memories."I certainly understand that it's for international audiences, but these things are American icons," he said. "Why even pretend it's G.I. Joe then? I am a little bit upset about the whole thing."Huston believes it's the latest example of Hollywood's hostility toward all things American, and he said he probably won't go to see the film if the existing plans are executed."It's the last spit in the face of our military," Huston said. "The doll was G.I. Joe, the government-issued guy who was a hero and American. It was celebrating this one heroic soldier. They want to take even that away."But in order to be a true success these days, a film has to play well to foreign markets as well as stateside in everything from box-office to DVD sales.For some citizens of other countries — where sentiments against the Iraq war and the American government are strong — a U.S. soldier might not be the easiest character to get viewers to identify with.Paramount's Rob Moore, a high-level marketing executive, recently told AdAge.com that it was too soon to know what the global response would be to the film."Until there's a [locked] script, I don't think you can really comment on what the international reaction will be," he said. "There are parts of the world where [the negative perception of the American government] is an issue, like Western Europe, and parts where it isn't, like the U.K., Australia and Asia."Hasbro, the maker of the G.I. Joe action figure line, declined to comment about what's in store for its line of G.I. Joe toys and action figures.But the toy company's chief operating officer, Brian Goldner, has previously spoken to the media about plans for the movie and brand."There are always challenges ... G.I. Joe is not just a brand that represents the military, it also represents great characters," he told AdAge.com. "We'll weigh our options. Clearly we do a lot of work on consumer insight."The film will be directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Di Bonaventura Films — which just did the highly successful "Transformers" movie — and written by Stuart Beattie and Skip Woods.__________________________________________________________________________________As you can expect, Sommers’s production company only donates to Democrats. His partner Robert Ducsay is a big Obama contributor.