While ostensibly on a press junket for his upcoming thriller Vantage Point, Dennis Quaid let slip some details about his involvement in Paramount’s upcoming GI Joe flick. The folks over at Collider fired off a series of questions about the project which Quaid happily answered.
Signed for three films as the Joe Team’s leader General Hawk, Quaid admitted that he has been hitting the gym to get a bit more in shape “trying to look like the cartoon” and that he will only be shooting two of the film’s five weeks of principal photography.
He also stated why he was interested in taking on a project that might seem light weight compared to other movies on his filmography-
We grew up with G.I. Joe and it’s kind of a cartoon thing…it’s a big popcorn type of tent pole action movie that…it’s not deep. The character of General Hawk that I’m playing is kind of a cross between Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naïve Hugh Hefner thrown in there. General Hawk’s aide [de] camp is a Victoria Secret supermodel so how serious can it be?
As for the film’s setting and tone, he had this to say-
It’s set a little bit in the future, and in a way the Joe’s are an international sort of special forces type of group that mainly fights these terrorists groups that spring up. It’s really more like James Bond than it would be about…yeah it’s more like James Bond… I think it’s going to be more like the old James Bond’s – like the Dr. No’s – where the mastermind has his own private island and all these people are wearing matching coveralls.
You know, if the Army started mentioning the Victoria Secret’s supermodel thing in their recruitment advertising, enlistment might be going up instead of down.
GI Joe should be storming theaters on August 7, 2009.
