I have to give Transformers credit for not trying to throw every aspect of the twenty-year-old franchise into its first movie. In fact, the film basically stayed with the basic characters in interest of the story. Good for them, because it looks like the upcoming G.I. Joe movie is tossing years of characters into one giant bowl for the film.
We knew the movie would have quite a few of the classic G.I. Joes, and we knew the adversary would be COBRA, which was a smart move on the part of the scriptwriters (when previous drafts attempted to leave the classic villain organization out). What’s surprising me is that apparently the third party gang of Dreadnoks are going to be involved, or at least their leader, Zartan.
For those who don’t know Joe, Zartan is a master of espionage and disguise. In the original G.I. Joe mythos, the character used holograms, hypnosis, and illusions to masquerade as anyone else. He led a biker gang known as the Dreadnoks, who were basically a bunch of psychotic mercenary thugs.
While we are told the Dreadnoks themselves won’t be in the movie, it appears Zartan will be – mostly because IESB is reporting the role has been cast. If their source is to be believed, Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy) will play the master of disguise. The source also confirms this morning’s rumor about Channing Tatum joining the cast.
I’m a little surprised to hear Zartan’s name being included. I’m hoping it’s a small role, or else this movie could potentially suffer from the same thing that plagued Street Fighter - an attempt to cram too much into one movie. Still, Vosloo is always a bad-ass for Sommers and it’ll be cool to see him play something other than Imhotep, the Mummy.
