By now, you’re surely aware of the bad buzz that has been lingering around Paramount’s August tent-pole feature, G.I. Joe: the bra-stuffing allegations, the poorly received trailers, the (since-proven-untrue) rumors that the director had been fired from the project, and Sienna Miller’s now-infamous assessment of the movie as being about “Guns, tits, ass, no acting!†Despite all of this flotsam and jetsam floating around the Internet, Paramount is doing its best to salvage the project, by dropping $150 million to market the film in the heartland, not on the coasts. As part of this effort, they have taken the bold step of not screening their $175 million film for critics.
Actually, New York had sort of broken this news by way of the Approval Matrix that appeared in our August 3 edition of the magazine. Paramount was none too happy with the fifteen-word assessment of the situation, so they worked with the New York Post on a story that ran under the headline “Paramount: We’re Not Hiding G.I. Joe.†However, in an
Associated Press story that ran today, Paramount’s vice-chairman Rob Moore offered up this wildly contradictory quote: “G.I. Joe is a big, fun, summer event movie — one that we’ve seen audiences enjoy everywhere from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Phoenix, Ariz. After the chasm we experienced with Transformers 2 between the response of audiences and critics, we chose to forgo opening-day print and broadcast reviews as a strategy to promote G.I. Joe. We want audiences to define this film.â€
So, that leaves us a smidge confused. If they’re not “hiding†the film, why only show it to a handful of sycophantic fanboy sites? Oh well, we’re not too chuffed either way. See you at the Razzies, Stephen Sommers!