A few more articles came through the Internet while I was in Indianapolis, and thanks to Twitziller for pointing them out.

On Flickering Myth, they take a massive and extremely in depth look at many of the effects used throughout the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film.  This is a huge article but has some really cool information about the film and what was required to get some of these visual effects  implemented.

On the Art of VFX site, they speak with Bill George who was the VFX Supervisor from Industrial Light and Magic.  They look mostly at the mountain battle sequence and London’s destruction, but there is some other insight throughout the article as well.

Good stuff here.

Shortly before the G.I. Joe Convention, Slashfilm.com had performed a marathon “FilmAid” broadcast, a 10 hour marathon to raise funds for the FilmAid charity.  Part of this marathon was a great interactive interview with G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon Chu.

No worries, you don’t have to listen to all 10 hours, if you just want to hear Jon Chu, Slashfilm has posted just the Chu segment right here.  The segment is almost half an hour long, and is very entertaining and provides some excellent insight into the film.

Kudos to Slashfilm for their work on this and for raising over $10,000 for this great charity, and thanks to Twitziller for letting me know this was online.

Cruising around the web on my post G.I. Joe Convention tour, I found a great article from Forbes.com speaking specifically about G.I. Joe: Retaliation and how well Paramount handled the marketing and development of the film.  While the person writing the article has no real love for the film itself, he provides some excellent insight into the box office so far, and lays out great groundwork for when a film really starts making money.

His perspective on the rocky road for G.I. Joe: Retaliation is very honest, very fair, and even though he’s not a fan of the movie, it sounds like Paramount made the right move in doing what they did, and the result has been fantastic financially.

Yes, we were all lamenting the nine month delay (believe me, I was among the most vocal) but turns out that 3D conversion and how it impacted the foreign market may have just salvaged the G.I. Joe brand and nearly guaranteed a third film.  Check out the article on Forbes.com.

As the G.I. Joe Convention winds to a close in Indianapolis, G.I. Joe: Retaliation continues to gain momentum world wide.  With a first weekend box office of a very healthy $132M, Paramount had already greenlit development 0n a third film.  Now, just over a week later, Box Office Mojo reports that the latest G.I. Joe motion picture has topped over $230M worldwide.

Hitting about $87M domestically and a whopping $141.2M internationally, G.I. Joe: Retaliation continues to provide a backdrop for the G.I. Joe mythology going forward.  Big props to Jon M Chu, Paramount, and everyone involved in the production, who gambled on a nine month delay, but evidently the gamble has paid off.

Check out the full report at Box Office Mojo.

Good afternoon from Indianapolis, and welcome to the 2013 G.I. Joe Convention Hasbro Seminar coverage!

I’m sure the news is out there by now that Hasbro did not bring any new product or new concepts to reveal at this year’s convention. While this has caused some concern among the fandom, rest assured, things are not DOA and the line is not in dire straits.

The early positive buzz from the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film has already encouraged Paramount to green light a third film, and Hasbro is reacting to that as we speak. The results have driven Hasbro to greatly increase production for Wave 3 and 4 product, and placed those orders to their factories. As a result of the increased production requests, unfortunately the release of Wave 3 will be pushed back slightly from May, 2013 to late July or August, 2013. The pessimist would say that this is a bad thing, but personally I’d rather wait an extra 4 – 6 weeks to ensure that enough product is made and distributed to ensure allocation to everyone who wants it.

For the rest of the report on the 2013 G.I. Joe Convention Hasbro seminar, click the Read the Rest of the Story link below.

Read the rest of this entry »

This artwork looks to be focusing mostly on characters and character costumes, but is just as awesome as previous artwork shown.  We see the origins of Cobra Commander, Flint, Snake Eyes, and many others through a series of great images from Constantine Sekeris.

Another big thanks to Twitziller for keying me into these.  Really gorgeous looking stuff, and some stuff that might have looked pretty darn awesome in live action form.

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It seems like nonstop posting of What’s on Joe Mind content over the past week, but we figure with everyone travelling to JoeCon this week, you’re going to need something to listen to in your planes, trains, and automobiles!  Now the question is, how could we possibly top a Jon Chu appearance?

Umm, yeah.  I got nothing.  But this episode is Live, Raw, uncut and uncensored!  Right before JoeCon we typically do a quick and dirty unedited episode, and that’s what #77 is.  Warning, explicit language!  Check it out at our Podbean page, or via the embedded players below.

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Well, its our second annual pre-JoeCon “Live” episode.  Who could we have as our guest on the heels of Jon Chu…well, how about TNI’s and the CFB’s Don Anderson.  Feel a little let down now?  Yeah, a little.  Imagine how we felt…but Don brought his B-Game for us and we had a semi-good show.  We answer more of your listener mail, talk about the surprising returns of Retaliation, rejoice at the green lighting of GI Joe 3, and do a ton of preview for JoeCon – INCLUDING the 10 day AccuJoe Forecast and  items you should bring with you on your trip to Indianapolis.  For those of you who are wondering, we also have James Kavanaugh’s list from last year, so take note!!

So this is our last regular edition for a couple of weeks.  Thankfully, no Chuck until then.  In the meantime, catch our JoeCon Special Editions and see us LIVE (for real time time) in the Grand Ballroom ON STAGE at JoeCon on Saturday, April 6th, 2013 from 4:00-4:50pm.

See you in Gary’s hometown of Indy!!

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• G.I. Joe: Retaliation breaks $132M and signals G.I. Joe 3 is a GO!

Now that the movie has been released, some of the previously concealed concept art is starting to emerge, and holy cow is this most recent batch eye-opening and a little heart breaking.  First, we check out Joshua Min and Aaron Sim’s art for some scenery and set pieces, and HOLY CRAP COBRA ISLAND.

In all fairness, I don’t know for sure if that’s Cobra Island, but it certainly looks like it could be, and I’m loving the landing platform raising from the trees.  Some very cool shots here (and thanks to MSGIJoe Collectors Club for the link):

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Also, i09.com linked us to some equally cool concept art, mostly for characters.  I’m glad this wasn’t used in the film, just because it’s a bit “out there” but they are still exceptionally cool to look at.  Check out those images, also from Aaron Sims, with some additional artwork not scene above:

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Warning, these do contain some spoilers, but they also contain a heaping helping of awesomesauce as well.

Kudos to Twitziller for locating these.  FXGuide.com has posted a series of special effects videos for particular scenes in the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film, and they look really cool.  I love seeing some of this behind the scenes action and see how these various shots develop.

The videos do not allow embedding, but there’s a ton of them anyway, so check them all out at FXGuide.com.

When we sat down Friday night to talk about our feelings on G.I. Joe: Retaliation, I’m not sure any of us figured that by the end of the recording, we’d be sharing our thoughts and concerns with Jon Chu himself!  But timing is everything, and that’s how it worked out.

We spend the first hour or so dissecting the film, and trying not to go total fanboy.  Rest assured, most of us loved the film, we were just trying to do some objective analysis.  But when Mr. Chu joined the call, I think we all went a little fanboy.  Check out the latest special edition on our Podbean page, or through the embedded players below.  Show notes, as usual, after the jump.

WARNING!  SPOILERS AHEAD!

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Once again, first off, there are many many spoilers discussed in this episode. If you have not seen the movie and do not want to be spoiled, we recommend you DO NOT listen to this until you have seen the movie first!!

So we’ve all seen the movie. There is some parts WE LOVE. There are some parts that still need some work. Aaaand, yes, there is a part or two that made us cringe. With that said, we all enjoyed our time at the theater to watch the movie we waited so long for. What were our favorite parts? What parts did we not like? What would we do if we were in charge? We answer all of those. Plus…we get an unannounced but very welcome visit by Retalition’s Director – yes, Mr. Jon M. Chu himself joins us from his kitchen. He spends nearly an HOUR with us candidly answering every question we asked him. What an opportunity – thanks to Justin for setting that up and thanks for Jon joining us while going over opening night return numbers. We had a blast doing this one and we hope you enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime recording of WOJM!

Once again, spoilers are abound – you have been warned!

Jon M Chu

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