Bradley Cooper To Star As Duke In Paramount’s New ‘G.I. Joe’ Movie From Director Danny McBride

EXCLUSIVE: Danny McBride and Paramount Pictures has found their Duke to lead its troops in its new G.I. Joe movie as sources tell Deadline Bradley Cooper is set to star as the leader the military unit in the latest film based on the Hasbro toy line.

McBride is directing the pic, who landed the job after he was one of a handful of pitches Paramount was looking at earlier this year. McBride is celebrated for his distinctive voice and creative vision and is also writing the screenplay with Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri.

Once McBride landed the job, he had a wish list of actors he wanted to star with Cooper high on that list. Given Cooper’s busy schedule which includes directing and starring opposite Margot Robbie in the upcoming Ocean’s prequel, there was no guarantee he would be able to commit to the film but after reading the script and meeting with McBride, he knew wanted to do star in the pic and negotiations began in recent weeks.

Cooper brings his unique artistic excellence to the film as one of Hollywood’s most accomplished actors, who has achieved both critical and commercial acclaim over his distinguished career. This isn’t the first time McBride took a swing at casting Cooper in a project as he famously has told the story of how he got the Oscar-nominee to do a guest role in his HBO series The Righteous Gemstones, so the two already had history prior to this project.

The Oscar-nominated star has already had himself a year following the critical acclaim of his Searchlight film Is This Thing on, which he directed, wrote and starred opposite Will Arnett. The Ocean’s prequel was not next up, and after losing director Lee Isaac Chung during pre-production, Warner Bros. came to Coooper to keep the movie on course for its release by asking him to not only star opposite Robbie but write and direct the film. Not only was he able to keep production in line but he was able to assemble the same high-profile cast these films are known for. The film is currently in production in Europe.

The film is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, and Zev Foreman for Hasbro Entertainment.

Plot details are under wraps, but it will be a reimagining of the G.I. Joe franchise. It will also be uncoupled from a previous crossover film with Transformers that is no longer in development.

Growing Paramount’s franchises is a key pillar of the slate strategy set forth by Co-Chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg earlier this year, as they’ve assembled top talent to develop and revitalize Paramount’s existing franchises and IP, including Days of Thunder, starring Anne Hathaway, reuniting Tom Cruise with Jerry Bruckheimer with Jonathan Levine directing, World War Z, landing Brad Pitt’s return with Oscar winner Ed Berger set to direct; a new Paranormal Activity film with James Wan and Jason Blum producing; a new Star Trek project from Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley; and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, expanding the franchise with a new live-action film produced by Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher, in addition to the upcoming 2027 sequel to Mutant Mayhem from Seth Rogen and Point Grey; Sonic the Hedgehog 4, reuniting fan favorites Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba along with new additions to the Sonic family: Kristen Bell, Nick Offerman and Ben Kingsley; and the next installment of Top Gun: Maverick. Paramount is also growing its portfolio by bringing well-known IP in-house, including the first-ever Call of Duty film in partnership with Activision written and produced by Pete Berg with Taylor Sheridan with Berg directing. They also have A Quiet Place Part 3 starring Emily Blunt with John Krasinski directing.