So There’s This Other G.I. Joe Movie Coming Out

I’m sure you’ve seen the trailers and advertisements for the Stephen Sommers-directed G.I. Joe move that comes out this August. But there’s another G.I. Joe movie coming out, and frankly, I’m more excited about this one. Entitled G.I. Joe: Resolute, it’s a PG-13 cartoon airing on Adult Swim is supposed to be a grittier, more realistic and adult version of the classic cartoon (for example, some characters will actually die). And how’s this for geek cred? It’s written by Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan).

Ellis knew nothing about G.I. Joe when he signed on to write the project. Which meant that he had no attachments, no nostalgia to deal with, but instead, could bring a fresh new view to the title and the characters. Or, as he puts it:

So my brief was to produce a non-tiny-child-oriented GI JOE. Which necessitated reading just a toxic amount of research, leading me to birth an odd, lumpy, normal-for-Norfolk-looking hybrid of the comic and the cartoon. The idea was, as I understand it, that bringing in a writer with absolutely no nostalgia for the property would give them the tone they were looking for. I think they were happy when I presented them with the initial list of characters I was going to just kill. And then the list of things I was going to blow up.

G.I. Joe: Resolute will initially appear online as 5-minute segments and a 10-minute finale, but the entire thing will air on Adult Swim on April 25, 2009. I’ve included two video clips below. The first is the official Adult Swim teaser/trailer and the second is promo shown at the San Diego Comic Convention. I prefer the second video, if only because it’s full of Snake Eyes bad-ass-itude.

As far as ’80s nostalgia goes, I think it’s safe to say that I’m more excited about this than I am about the other G.I. Joe movie and Transformers 2 combined.