Jon M. Chu’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation is now playing in theaters.  The sequel’s story finds the Joes disbanded and outnumbered as they must square off against not only the Cobras, but also threats within their own government.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation stars Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum,  D.J. Cotrona, Elodie YungRay ParkByung-hun Lee, Ray Stevenson, Walton Goggins, RZA and Adrianne Palicki For more on the film, here’s clips, images, on set interviews, and all our previous coverage.

Last weekend, I sat down with screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick for an extended interview.  Over the past few days we've posted what they said about their Zombieland pilot, the Deadpool movie, and their take on Venom.  However, that was just the tip of the iceberg because during the interview we also talked about making G.I. Joe, the nine-minute dialogue-free action sequence featuring Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, the 3D post conversion, changes from the original G.I. Joe, landing the job, and other future projects like an HBO series, a sci-fi tent-pole for Sony, Universal’s Cowboy Ninja Vikings, and Bad Robot’s Micronauts.  Hit the jump to watch.

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick Time Index:

  • 0:20 - Reese and Wernick respond to the delay of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the resulting 3D post-conversion and the false rumors of reshoots.
  • 2:00 - Talk about scripting the nine-minute dialogue-free action sequence between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes.
  • 3:50 – The screenwriters talk about the amount of change from pitch to screen for G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
  • 5:20 – Reese and Wernick reflect on getting the job to pen the G.I. Joe sequel after Zombieland.
  • 6:30 – Regarding changes from the original G.I. Joe, Reese and Wernick talk about their approach.
  • 7:30 – Reese and Wernick talk about which G.I. Joe characters they could choose to use in the movie.
  • 8:30 – The writers talk about Walton Goggins’ character in the sequel and how much of his performance was scripted.
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    Image via Paramount
    9:22 – Their draft of Venom and the chances of it getting made.
  • 9:50 – They continue to talk about their take on Venom with respect to tone.
  • 10:25 – Comment on their confidence in the Venom and Deadpool scripts.
  • 11:30 – Talk about their awesome pitch to the studio for Venom.
  • 12:15 – Regarding Deadpool, which they call the favorite script they’ve ever written and hard R, they talk about Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller filming a test scene.
  • 13:20 – Reese and Wernick talk about the modest budget of a Deadpool movie.
  • 13:45 – Comment on Fox comic book properties and whether they’ll be able to make their own Avengers-type film.
  • 14:30 – Talk about the leaked Deadpool script and their continuing conversations with Reynolds and Miller.
  • 15:20 – The Zombieland TV series pilot on Amazon and how its success moving forward is based on how many fans stream it.
  • 16:30 – Talk about the tone of the half-hour series as compared to the Zombieland movie.
  • 17:30 – Talk about the number of episodes in the season and their pitch to Amazon.
  • 18:10 – Comment on their involvement with the casting process of the series.
  • 18:30 – They reveal their current writing projects: an HBO series, a sci-fi tent-pole for Sony and Universal’s Cowboy Ninja Vikings and Bad Robot’s Micronauts.

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