After playing a PTSD-addled veteran in Kimberly Peirce's (Boys Don't Cry) somber Iraq War-themed flick Stop-Loss, rising star Channing Tatum (Step Up) shifted to a war movie with a considerably different tone: the big-budget 2009 tentpole flick G.I. Joe, in which he plays the battle-hardened second-in-command Duke. At a recent press event to promote Stop-Loss, Tatum commented on the strange transition:
"This (Stop-Loss) being a war film, I was really opposed to doing another," Tatum said. "I was like, I'm not gonna do a fictitious war movie in a time of war. But then I read the script and talked to everyone involved and it really has nothing to do with politics or war at all. It's a total comic book. It's X-Men and Mission: Impossible. That's really the only way I could capture the movie."
A fan of the original '80s animated series, Tatum admitted to being a bit starstruck when paired alongisde Ray Park, who plays Joe team ninja Snake Eyes. "Snake Eyes looks pretty cool in person, I gotta say," he recounted. "He was always my favorite character. To see him standing next to you is just like, 'Whoa!'"
You can check out the first two official images of Snake Eyes over at IESB.net.