F. Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen) and Jon Chu (Justin Bieber: Never Say Never) are reportedly among the leading candidates to helm the as-of-yet-untitled sequel to 2009′s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Per Heat Vision, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura of Paramount has recently met with a slew of directors regarding the flick, with Gary and Chu emerging as frontrunners for the gig. It is believed that the studio is aiming at a summer 2012 release for the sequel (which is being penned by Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick), meaning a director will most likely be named sooner rather than later.

As for the two candidates, Gray has a stronger action background given his work with Paramount on 2003′s The Italian Job as well as helming projects such as The Negotiator and A Man Apart. For Chu’s part, in addition to his recent exploration into everything Justin Bieber-related, the director has also lead the last two installments in Disney’s Step Up franchise. So, as it stands, both candidates have experience working with a major studio…and that’s about where the similarities end. As mentioned earlier, look for more news regarding the director’s chair for the G.I. Joe sequel in the near future. [Note: My original article failed to mention that our friends over at Latino Review broke this news initially - with an additional name included in the mix, Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra. All apologies, LR!]

Larry Hama, the man behind the GI JOE comic book I grew up reading, lets us in on the transition from toyline to one hundred fifty issues of awesome.  Brian Goldner (Producer), Stuart Beattie (Writer) and Stephen Sommers (Director) join him in the two-minute look.

I’ve been anxiously awaiting this film since childhood.  I got excited reading Frosty’s review because it sounded exactly like what I wanted from the film.  In a word: fun.  Of course, like you, I have a week-plus wait ahead of me, but this clip is a good way to whet your appetite. Take a look after the jump. Go Joe!

The other day I spoke with to screenwriter Stuart Beattie about his work on “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra”. We did a phone interview as he’s currently in Australia scouting locations and prepping his first feature “Tomorrow, When the War Began”. In a few weeks I’ll post everything he said about “Joe”, but today I wanted to focus on what he said about all the other projects he’s involved with.

In case you didn’t know, Stuart is writing/developing “Tarzan: Lord Of The Jungle” for director Stephen Sommers at Warner Brothers, “The 89th War” for Ron Howard, “Bra Boys” for Russell Crowe, Tom Clancy’s “Without Remorse”, and “Spyhunter” for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. He also wrote a script for a “Halo” movie completely on spec and he told me his take on the material and when he believes Hollywood will finally make a great video game movie.

It’s a great interview so check it out after the jump: