G.I. Joe 2 is aiming for to begin shooting in spring 2011 and possibly hit theaters in summer 2012.  In an interview with MTV, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are still at work on the script so while there’s nothing final, the current thinking is to try to shoot next spring and get the film into theaters the summer of 2012.  However, di Bonaventura remained cagey about which characters from the original film would return, and “It would make life a little easier to have a few less life a little easier to have a few less.”  As for whether the film will be in 3D, the producer said he’d be open to it but the decision rests with Paramount and the yet-to-be-named director would also have a big say in it.

I only recently caught G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra on DVD but I thought it was a fun flick.  It was the film equivalent of a kid playing with action figures and playsets, which is perfect seeing as that’s the origin of the whole property.

I don’t have much love for the Razzie Awards.  It’s not because I disagree with their choices as much as I find their choices predictable and safe.  Instead, they just phone it in with movies most people agree are terrible and then we move along with our day.  No controversy, no creativity, no reason to care.  Well, I don’t care.  Some people do just as some people think Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Land of the Lost are genuinely good movies even though they each scored seven Razzie nominations.

Other “worsts” include Old Dogs, All About Steve and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  Acting nominations are even more non-sensical as they seem to pick actors in bad movies rather than bad performances.  Did people walk out of Bride Wars thinking Candice Bergen was one of the worst parts of that movie?  Was Will Ferrell one of the worst actors of the year because of Land of the Lost?  No, but this way you don’t have to actually watch movies and make an argument for these things.

Check out a full list of the nominees after the jump plus the nominees for Worsts of the Decade.  The losers will be announced on March 6th.

While some didn’t think much of director Stephen Sommers G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I had a blast watching the cartoon come to life, because that’s what it was.  Nothing more, nothing less.  And the people that understood that, well, they had a blast watching all their favorite characters on the big screen.

And even though some might think the film wasn’t profitable, the fact is The Rise of Cobra made over $300 million at the worldwide box office and I’m sure it helped to sell a lot of toys.  What I’m trying to say is, this film made people money, and when that happens, you get sequels!

More after the jump…including a MAJOR UPDATE:

With Avatar the reigning champ and Sherlock Holmes still to come, Hollywood crossed the $10 billion line for the first time in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales for 2009.  Through Sunday, the total stood just $36 million short of crossing the $10 billion line, according to tracking firm Hollywood Box Office, and was set to plow across it Tuesday night.

The year’s top box office attractions were Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and with hits like Harry Potter and The Hangover, Warner Bros. was the North American box office champ among studios.  And with both Robert Downey Jr.’s take on Sherlock Holmes and the return of those rascally rodents in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel coming in time for Christmas, the final take is expected to top $10.4 billion.

Hit the jump for a list of the top 20 domestic box office hits of 2009.

With only hours to go before Hollywood’s golden season draws to a close, I thought it was a good time to do the post-mortem on the summer of 2009.  By now you may have heard that this summer was Hollywood’s most-profitable ever with grosses topping $4.3 billion. But has it felt like the biggest summer ever?  Not really.  Blockbusters like “Transformers 2″ and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” aside, 2009 was a season of expensive movies that didn’t live up to the hype and cheap movies that performed above all expectations.  Follow me now into the murky world of box office number crunching to see just how huge Hollywood’s hugest summer really was.

In terms of timeline, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: The Video Game takes place immediately after the recently released movie and begins with the Baroness being teleported out of GI Joe custody via Cobra’s newest weapon, the MASS device, a teleportation tool to increase troop movement across the globe, and find that teammates Heavy Duty and Ripcord were also kidnapped during the Baroness’ escape. Starting with Duke and Scarlett, you begin searching for your missing teammates while Breaker, Data Frame, and Dial-Tone try to unravel how the MASS device works back at the PIT (GI Joe’s base of operations) and how GI Joe can remove this military advantage from Cobra’s hands. More after the jump:

It’s all good news for director Neill Blomkamp’s once-mysterious sci-fi movie “District 9″.  The film, produced by Peter Jackson, rounded out its first three days with a remarkable $37 million from 3,049 dates.  While that total certainly isn’t anywhere near the top weekends of the summer, when the film’s budget of $30 million is weighed along with the fact that most Americans had never heard of either Blomkamp or “District 9″ a couple of weeks ago, the term ‘remarkable’ may even be an understatement.

In the end, I guess it all comes down to nostalgia.  If you played with G.I. Joes or Transformers and watched their Saturday morning cartoon shows, then a movie works off your nostalgia and hopefully will be the cinematic equivalent of Frosted Mini-Wheats.  I was never excited for those films because they weren’t really a part of my childhood.  Even “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” I kind of left behind.

But then there are Legos.  And they’re getting a movie.  And I get to become a hypocrite.  Hit the jump to build rose-tinted glasses.

While some wondered how much “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” would make opening weekend, the film made over $56 million domestically and $44 million internationally. What that means is…it’s time to start thinking about a sequel!

And according to the LA Times article, Paramount’s Vice Chairman Rob Moore has confirmed that a sequel will soon go into development. What that really means is, if the film continues to perform at the box office, we’ll hear about a script being commissioned and a release date in 2011 or 2012 being picked. So I’d say a few more great weekends and it’s a done deal. With the film costing a reported $175 million to make plus marketing costs, it’s going to have to make at least $300 million before a sequel is greenlit. While some had a lot of problems with “G.I. Joe”, I wasn’t one of them. I’d love to see a sequel made. More as we get it.

Despite losing some steam between Friday and Saturday, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cora” easily dominated the weekend with an estimated domestic take of $56.2 million and another $44 million from international markets.  That’s the good news for fans of the Real American Hero.  The bad news is that this week is as good as it gets for “Joe”…

In this, the summer of diminishing expectations, my hopes for Paramount’s pricey “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” were not very high. But it turns out that I need not have feared for the real American hero. “GI Joe” opened to an impressive $22.3 million from 4,007 locations – an August record for non-sequels. Sony’s anti-Joe option, “Julie & Julia”, came in second with $6.5 million from 2,975 venues while “Funny People”, last week’s number one movie, fell a disturbing 70% to number four.  It could be worse.  The latest from director Judd Apatow could have ended up down at number seven like the new Rogue thriller “Perfect Getaway”.  Check back tomorrow to see how much sadder things get for the funny folk…

As you may have already noticed by the abundance of video interviews on Collider, last night I covered a special “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” screening at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. While there, I landed tons of video interviews with the cast and producers of the movie. Since I already talked to Channing Tatum about “G.I. Joe” on more than one occasion, I decided to use my time to talk about other projects. So after the jump you can hear Channing talk about his next film “Dear John” and the project he’s about to start…a Roman Empire film called “The Eagle of the Ninth”. If you haven’t heard about that one yet, it’s going to be directed by Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”, “State of Play”). What I’m trying to say is…it’s a film you should be excited for. Watch the interview after the jump:

Last night I covered the special “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” screening at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. While there I was able to interview tons of the cast on the red carpet and the interview you’re about to watch is with the beautiful Rachel Nichols.

During our interview she talked about being in “Star Trek” this summer, the promotional tour for “G.I. Joe”, her next film “Meskada” with Nick Stahl, and she continued Marlon Wayans conversation about Japanese bathrooms. Seriously. Of course we talked about other subjects; those are just some of the highlights. Take a look after the jump:

Last night I covered a special “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” screening at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. While there I was able to interview tons of people on the red carpet and rather than divide up these three interviews into separate articles, I’m posting all them here, in one place. So after the jump you can see Byung-hun Lee (Storm Shadow) talk about making “G.I. Joe”, screenwriter Stuart Beattie talk about his directorial debut “Tomorrow, When the World Began”, and Marlon Wayans (Ripcord) talk more about Japanese bathrooms and what character he might want to join the “Joe” team in the sequel. Take a look:

Just a few hours ago I was at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood for a special screening of “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”. While it wasn’t called a premiere, it had all the spectacle of one, as thousands of people were screaming at the stars and the cast and filmmakers walked a huge red carpet.

Anyway, while there I managed to get an interview with Brian Goldner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hasbro. With so many projects in development at Universal, I got him to give me updates on “Stretch Armstrong”, “Candy Land”, “Monopoly”, “Battleship”, and a lot more. So if you’re curious how Hasbro is planning to bring their board games to movie screens, you’re going to want to watch this interview. Take a look after the jump: