Eleven days ago, the character of Duke in Stephen Sommers’s much hated-on G.I. Joe was said to be down to three actors: Lost’s Matthew Fox, Fantastic 4’s Chris Evans and Channing Tatum from the upcoming MTV-does-Iraq-War flick Stop-Loss. AICN now says that Tatum is definitely Duke.
Tatum is 27, he was born in Alabama and if you’ve recognized him in anything it was probably the wobbly Shia LaBeouf flick A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints or the rare, naughty Anne Hathaway debacle Havoc. Slashfilm’s resident diehard G.I. Joe fan, Peter, is returning from Sundance shortly, so I’ll let him unleash the expletive-barking hounds of hell on this casting truthiness if he feels it necessary, but to me, Tatum is fine. I’ve seen the movies above, and I’ve seen him pop out a tear in the trailer to Stop-Loss, and all I really needed to see was the above photo to know he’s fine for this role.
Sommers coming aboard automatically zapped this movie into low-brow Cartoon Land, and no actor this side of George Clooney or Josh Brolin was going to save it. Tatum can pull off the role of an arrogant, affable cocky co-leader with a large firearm hanging off his shoulder. Let’s just hope he doesn’t bump into Rambo from Rambo because that would take more than the crime cleanup crew from Sunshine Cleaning to wipe up with a sponge and broom.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Ugh… Mr. Gordon-Levitt… if you’re reading this… run while you still can! Run away from this project and don’t look back!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
How can you be so prepared to unleash the hounds on a cartoon movie adaptation that had the enemy jumping out of planes within 5 seconds of an explosion?
January 28th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
@ peter:
a couple months ago, i had disagreed with you about the integrity and overall success of gi joe. i was thinking it’d be just fine, you said otherwise etc…holy shit was i wrong! sommers and this cast (except for a couple good choices) are going to run this franchise into the ground before it even starts. damn, damn, damn…well here’s to the reboot in 6 or 7 years!
January 28th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Is anyone really surprised that they’re pinching costs and hiring 3rd string talent? In Tatums case 6th-30th string. Don’t expect him to stray to far from his earlier work staring around http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V43s0vOp7YM. Seriously though is this movie really for guys/men/boys? The only people interested in Tatum are 7th grade girls. I think what people are most upset about is that they haven’t cast someone who even resembles a soldier, opting instead for a plain glossy jock from the suburbs who can maybe glare intensely, blue steel, but deliver little else.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
also just read at ‘iesb.com’ that the guy who plays ‘The Mummy’, in ‘The Mummy’ movies (also by sommers) will be playing Zartan…Arnold Volosso or however you say his name. This is gearing up to be the next ‘Justice League’, with all the shitty casting, except that they at least had george miller. thankfully JL got shut down, but i don’t see that happening here. again, cheers to the reboot in 6 or 7 years!
January 28th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I cant wait to hate this film!
January 29th, 2008 at 1:45 am
channing tatum = worst name ever.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:07 am
wait wait healso starred in Step Up and that movie was alright…. okay not really it kinda sucked. But he was in Coach Carter as well…
This name doesn’t add credibility or take away from this film… seeing as it was a bad idea in the first place
March 13th, 2008 at 6:47 am
i have decided that i would like to argue mclovin’s reply.
i think that channing was amazing in step up
maybe its just cause i think he is hott
or maybe cause i am a girl
and its a somewhat love story
but i love that movie its simply amazing