So far director Stephen Sommers has delivered a few fun action films, most notably The Mummy and Deep Rising. Now he’s about to have another successful action movie on his filmography with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. While most have been extremely harsh towards the film, I have confidence that it will be fun especially based on the fact that the first few reviews that have come in have been very positive.
Nice to meet you Stephen.
Sommers: Nice to meet you too.
I want to start out by asking about the Blu-Ray release. Could you talk about some of the special features and will there be any deleted scenes included, because I think I heard Brendan Fraser’s cameo was actually cut. How much footage in total would you say was cut?
Sommers: Yeah, I always listen to the audience when we previewed it and it always previewed great. So, my director’s cuts have always been in the theater and I’ve never done a separate director’s cut since it always plays in theaters. I have final cut, but there was a couple of scenes. There was a couple of fun scenes that we took out, but not much stuff. I’m trying to think, we’ll probably throw in a blooper reel. I just finished the movie literally twelve days ago so I haven’t even thought about the Blu-Ray release (laughs).
Will you do an audio commentary?
Sommers: Yeah, my editor who’s been with me since film school and I sit down to point out all the mistakes plus the things to look for. Its funny, because the first time we did it we left thinking, “oh, did we just give away all the secrets making ourselves look like fools”. People do seem to enjoy our commentaries so…
Say if G.I. Joe opens big would you want to do a sequel before going off to do Tarzan and When World’s Collided?
Sommers: Yeah, well Tarzan were working on right now with the script. Ask me on August eighth what I am thinking about doing next. Then for When World’s Collide were going to have to see how 2012 does, thats kind of a competing project.
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Are you looking forward to starting another franchise with the Mummy and now this? Also, could a Mummy four ever happen? I know you were a producer on the third film.
Sommers: Yeah, no well right now I’m just focused on G.I. Joe. I think they may let, you know they did three Mummy movies which were great. I think for now we can take some time off and let it breathe.
Will the Cobra Commander get his mask in the possible sequel?
Sommers: I’m not going to say anything, I’m not going to give away anything. Wait until you see.
How involved are you with your website? I actually even entered that contest there.
Sommers: (laughs) Well, Ryan who’s worked at my company for like six years or so, so were pretty involved.
What are my odds of winning?
Sommers: I think its almost guaranteed now!
Editor’s Note: Stephen at this point turned to the publicist in a joking manor telling her to write my name down.
What are some your favorite movies so far this summer?
Sommers: I haven’t been able to watch anything, because I’ve been making this movie. Literarily, I think I’ve seen… I saw Star Trek.
What did you think of it?
Sommers: Oh I loved it, I had a blast. I think thats the only movie I’ve seen this summer.
Have you ever thought of doing a movie without an explosion?
Sommers: No.
How do you feel about making the first live action movie that blows up the Eiffel Tower, because Team America did it first.
Sommers: (laughs) I’ve never seen Team America, but I bet ours looks better.
I heard the action is great especially the sequence in Paris and the underwater battle sequence which I believe is a homage to Thunderball. Do you like making a lot of references to pop culture?
Sommers: Yeah, I mean I always do that and I love references. I loved Thunderball as a kid and I thought wouldn’t it be cool to have a big underwater battle. I think we one up it.
With all these big action scenes, how would you want to top all this in the sequel?
Sommers: Well I haven’t thought about it yet, but I’m hoping I get to do a sequel because I had a great time working with the cast. It was a great cast and really fun. Hopefully we’ll be lucky enough.
I’m a big Ray Park fan and I was wondering how is he be able to show emotion in that suit while also looking bad ass?
Sommers: I guess you have to see the movie, but the suit is pretty viable strangely enough. Its hard to get right, but once we got it right he could move pretty well in it. When you see it [the action], Ray Park does most of that stuff. Thats why we had to hire him, we had no choice, he’s one of the few guys who can do that.
What do you think of how the past few days the perception of G.I. Joe has been changing with all the positive reviews starting to come out?
Sommers: Well, no one had seen the movie so everyone was either lying or making stuff up. Now they’ve seen the movie and say, “oh, its good”. So, thankfully you people are starting to see the movie and I was too busy making it over the last year or two to pay attention to what people were saying on the internet.
I also got to ask Channing Tatum a question:
While I was at the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra premiere I didn’t get to interview any actors, except for the question I shouted towards Tatum while he was leaving the red carpet. There hasn’t been much news recently on Oliver Stone’s delayed film Pinkville,which revolves around the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The film was effected by the writers strike and there’s still no word on when it will get back on track. So, I decided to ask Tatum whether or not he is still attached to Pinkville.
Hey Channing, are you still attached to Pinkville?
Channing Tatum: I am, but I don’t know if its ever going to get made.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra opens on August 7th.