This past summer wasnât exactly lacking in blockbuster material, but many will remember that it was originally supposed to have one more actioner on tap: the sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation. With its release date a little over a month away, Paramount abruptly pushed the filmâs release date back a whopping nine months. The official reason given for the move was that they wanted to post-convert the pic to 3D, but many surmised that the reshoots were being done to un-kill the suddenly popular Channing Tatum.Steve recently spoke with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about a number of upcoming projects (read what he had to say about Red 2 right here), and during their conversation, di Bonaventura talked about the nature of the 3D conversion of G.I. Joe, the last-minute release date change, and more. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.Di Bonaventura began by talking about the advances in 3D conversion technology:
âWe learned a lot about 3DâI personally learned a lot about 3D in Transformers. The conversion part of the 3D process is night and day, you know, every three, four months itâs better than it was before. Itâs amazing how fast that thing has changes. And originally we didnât really have the time or the resources to try to figure out how to shoot it in 3D in the time frame that we were originally talking about, you know, starting in August and releasing in June. So this delay has allowed us to go at it now.â
The producer also said that many of director Jon M. Chuâs sequences lend themselves well to the format:
âJon [Chu] has some sequences that are really, thereâs a phenomenalâfor G.I. Joe fans itâs going to be one of the really great scenes for them, because thereâs a fight between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow in a hallway that is so perfect for 3D I canât tell you. Itâs going to be like one of the coolest fights ever in 3D, because thereâs so much about it thatâs dynamic. Thatâs going to be really fun. And you know people have seen bits and pieces of the Himalayan sort of rock climbing thing, itâs almost 3D without having turned into 3D, so I canât wait to see that. That oneâs going to be like what the hell?â
Di Bonaventura also talked about his reaction to Paramountâs last-minute decision to delay the picâs release:
âWhen youâre planning yourself all towards one direction, you know, you definitely go, âWhoa, what the hell?â But the secondâhereâs a sort of simple way for me to look at things: if the studio wants to spend money on making your movie better, let them⦠I find it hilarious when people fight that, you know? Iâm like, âGreat, you want to spend a lot of money and try to make our movie a bigger success? Okay! That sounds good.â And Jon got that too. The first moment youâre sort of going, âWhoa! Uhhh, wait.â Then you realize, âOh okay, great, letâs do that.ââ
Look for Steveâs full interview with di Bonaventura soon.