In news that's certain to raise a few eyebrows, Max Landis is set to make a Hollywood comeback... seven years after his career took a nosedive during the #MeToo movement.
The controversial writer has been hired to pen a new G.I. Joe movie for Paramount, and the studio has also enlisted Danny McBride to work on a separate script, with both projects potentially being combined down the line.
As far as we know, the Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie we first heard about in 2024 is still moving forward.
Landis, the son of An American Werewolf in London director John Landis, was a hot commodity at one point after finding early success with his script for 2012’s Chronicle and Netflix's Bright. However, his career came to a screeching halt after a 2019 piece by The Daily Beast outlined some very serious sexual assault allegations from a number of women.
"[Landis would] bring up his hand and fake that he was going to hit me, and laugh when I flinched," said an ex-girlfriend. "He'd openly critique my body in front of people and tell me privately that I had the potential to be 'so hot' if I committed to working out more." "If any of this still feels like a blurred lines scenario let me assure you that he did hold me down and rape me while I said 'no' over and over. Afterwards I punched him in the shoulder and I told him, 'When someone says no, you're supposed to stop. What you just did is what they call rape.' He said he thought we were playing a game, and that I liked it. He didn't care."
No charges were ever filed against Landis, who did later acknowledge what he called "serious mistakes in relationships" and called himself a toxic partner to girlfriends. “I get why certain people hate me,” he said in a YouTube video.
Despite previous misfires, Paramount clearly sees value in this franchise. 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra grossed over $300 million worldwide, but was not well-recieved by fans or critics. A sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was released in 2013, and grossed $375 million. Reboot Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins hit theaters in 2021 and was a critical and commercial flop.
Snake Eyes was developed in place of a project titled G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant, which had Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec on board as co-screenwriters. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was reportedly in early negotiations to reprise his Reatliation role, and the plot would have centred around his character leading a new team of Joes, including Daina Janack, Dr. Adele Burkhart, Wild Bill, Barbecue, General Flagg, Doc, and Keel-Haul; the primary antagonists would have been Tomax and Xamot.
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