I had a soft spot for 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and I have a soft spot for this, even with its flaws. If you remember the end of the last film (and never mind if you didn’t), Zartan is impersonating the President of the United States in one step of Cobra Commander’s grand plan for world domination.

I think this is supposed to take place right after the last film, but no matter. All you need to know is that the President is not the real President, and the Joes are not aware of it. They’re busy raiding a nuclear arms facility in Pakistan — a mission devised by Zartan (Arnold Vosloo/Jonathan Pryce) to wipe out the Joes when they call for transport after the mission.

All of them, save for Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), Roadblock (The Rock), and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) are killed. Fortunately Snake Eyes (Ray Park) is away on another mission training with Jinx (Elodie Yung) and quite possibly the worst actor in the entire film, RZA as the aptly named Blind Master.

Yes, the first G.I. Joe was pretty to look at, but dumb. Much like its star. Of course, even if it was not everything it could have been, the gang at Paramount must be an optimistic bunch and so, there’s a sequel on the way.

This time the movie is called G.I. Joe: Retaliation and it stars Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis and Jonathan Pryce in a story featuring COBRA’s infiltration of the U.S. Government and the Joes saving the day.

It’s directed by John M. Chu and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Those are some pretty accomplished people, maybe this won’t be as bad as we think? Maybe.

At any rate, there’s a new trailer for the movie for you to check out. Look for the movie itself to arrive on March 29, 2013.

Check out the trailer after the break.

Though Green Lantern is prepping to be one of the larger superhero flicks of 2011 (in spite of the possible awesomeness of Thor and Captain America), Ryan Reynolds is still sticking to his word and planning on going back to his role as Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. In a recent interview with Hero Complex, Reynolds delves into the emotional trauma of the Merc with the Mouth and how much of a mess it will be to get into that character.

Many fans became smitten with him in that role after his performance in the poorly received X-Men Origins: Wolverine last year. Now, Reynolds has wrapped GL, is promoting Buried, and can’t wait to start killing people for money on film.

Here’s what he had to say about Deaadpool:

“It goes in such a different direction than a superhero movie usually goes. It’s a nasty piece of work. It’s just based in so much emotional filth, completely. It’s like ‘Barfly‘ if it were a superhero movie. It sort of treads into the world of an emotionally damaged person.  I always say that Deadpool is a guy in a highly militarized shame spiral…. It’s so different than the superhero movies to date, it departs so far from that.”

With Zombieland hitting DVD shelves across the country on tuesday, we thought it was only appropriate to share with you some of the cool features from the DVD and Blu-Ray release. We’ll be bringing you some cool bonus material from the release all week, but of course the most important material to any DVD: the deleted scenes.

With the film making over 3 times their production budget, and the film’s writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, getting picked up for such films as Deadpool and GI Joe 2, you can believe that the DVD will be as hot as the theatrical release. After the jump, we’ve got two brand new deleted scenes from the movie, including another rule to surviving the zombie apocalypse that never made the final cut, and an extended scene from the grocery store.

Be sure to check out the deleted scenes, and check back here this week for more of our coverage of the Zombieland DVD and Blu-Ray release.

Only a day after being announced as writers for the upcoming Deadpool movie, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have gotten yet another gig as the writers for the sequel to another summer movie franchise: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Taking over from the guys who had written the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and giving it to the team that brought us Zombieland, is I think a step in the right direction.

All of the main cast from the first film are contracted to return for sequels, with director Steven Sommers being the possible hold out. But, with the promise of this new writing team, hopefully the next GI Joe film can add more story to go with the anticipated amount of destruction.

The Rise of Cobra, now available on DVD, cost a reported $170 million and has so far brought in just over $300 million worldwide. But with a Rotten Tomatoes score of about 36%, it’s really got no place to go but up.

With Ryan Reynolds becoming a hot commodity in the world of Comic Book films, between getting signed as Green Lantern and Deadpool, it looks like things are still heating up for a Deadpool film over at Fox. CHUD recently got word that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are allegedly penning a script for Deadpool.

“While nothing is official just yet, it looks like Fox could be hiring Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Zombieland, to script the adventures of the Merc With A Mouth. I did my due diligence and asked around but couldn’t get a solid confirmation, so regard this one as a strong rumor… But if it’s more than a rumor – and my source tells me there could be a trade break announcing this within days – it’s actually a very good sign for Deadpool.”

Most of the film and comic fan community was torn on the thought of a Deadpool film after seeing what the studio did with the character in May’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Reynolds himself stated that the film will be “just like the comics”, including the mask, schizophrenia, and demolition of the fourth wall.

Up next for the Zombieland scribes is actually a sequel to the highly successful undead comedy. Word is that Zombieland 2 will start production next year, and will be shot in 3D.

I firmly believe Zombieland was one of the best films of 2009. It simply came out of nowhere, defied expectations, and even went so far as to inspire some of us.  Given the films success it’s no surprise that a sequel would be on the horizon. Now, Variety is able to confirm that a sequel is in development and chances are it will be in 3D:

“Everyone had fun watching (the first) ‘Zombieland’; making it a more visceral experience can only make it better,” said the film’s producer Gavin Polone. “I don’t think you want to see ‘Ordinary People’ in 3-D. But ‘Zombieland’ is clearly one movie that will benefit from (the technique).”

Now, I’ve never been sold on the whole 3D thing.  Personally, I think it’s a gimmick and haven’t gone out of my way to see any recent 3D films.  Simply put, I have yet to find a compelling reason to see a film in 3D over its standard counterpart.

That being said, Zombieland may just be the film I actively seek out a 3D theater to see it in.  It was so brilliantly campy that it begs to bring that pseudo third dimension to the adventures of Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg). It’s perfect, and so would a title of Z3D.  Okay, that may work better for a third film, but it’s still cool.

Zombieland opened this week and let me tell you it is, in my opinion, one of the best films of 2009. Only a day into its release Hollywood insiders were predicting the movie could go onto make $30 million in its opening weekend. If that happens it means Zombieland will have made back the $26 million and change it cost to make. While those numbers may not carry the weight of the billion dollars The Dark Knight made Zombieland’s rapid return on investment cannot be overlooked. Hollywood, take note, Zombieland should be the new standard of success.

All that said, I’m not writing a review of Zombieland by any means (Chris already wrote a great one), nor am I looking to talk about the merits of the film, of which there are many. No, I’m casting all the business stuff aside for the moment to speak about one thing: inspiration. You see, immediately after watching Zombieland I got home and was compelled to write (in this case a novel I’m working on). I had in me a burning desire to create. Therein lies the true success of Zombieland. For this writer, it spurred the creative forces that drive cinema.

How did it do this?  Simply put, the film was honest. There was no allusion to a grand design or twist ending. The characters were endearing and story practically A to B simple. Moreover, it defied stock conventions of the genre.  The girls weren’t running away screaming and guys not always the most heroic. These were characters anyone in the theater could relate to personally or through friends they probably know.  Being able to create that rapport with the audience was the secret weapon of Zombieland.  It connected with viewers (trust me on that, I saw the response from the packed theater first hand) and even if only for a few moments at a time they could see themselves in that world of zombies and loved it. Those are the moments writers, specifically, aspire to.

Part monster movie, part buddy road comedy with a dash of romance thrown in, Zombieland manages to deliver on pretty much every level. Featuring terrific performances by the entire cast, including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, this film is able to deliver genuine laughs, genuine scares and genuine entertainment for its entire running time. Its a solid piece of filmmaking by director Ruben Fleischer, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, that should definitely find an audience.

The premise of the film is, as it should be, relatively simple. The world as we know it has come to an end due to some unspecified reason and the dead are now walking the earth. In this world we first meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) who, being the introverted, Mountain Dew drinking, pseudo-loser he is, has managed to stay alive due to his nature and adherence to rules he’s come up with as a new citizen of Zombieland. His rules, such as “Cardio Good, Bathrooms Bad, Always shoot zombies twice, etc.” and his loner, anti-social nature have served him well and enabled him to survive.

So, its somewhat against his better judgment that he decides to team up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) on a road trip to find out if any of his family might still be alive in, you guessed it, Columbus. In case you’re wondering, the names characters call each other in Z-land are where they’re from and not their actual names. Better to not develop real ties with anyone seeing as how they might be eaten by zombies at any moment. This provides a bit of insight into the characters and also a bit of humor as well.

Spider-Man 3 was not the greatest installment of the franchise. It seemed for every great moment there was an equally bad one. Take Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace) for example. Sandman was a compelling character you could get behind. Venom was a gimmick, tacked onto the last third of the film. That isn’t to say Grace was not brilliant as Eddie Brock, he was, but Venom just felt forced into an already busy plot.

Worse yet was having not one, not two, but three nods to The Lizard throughout the franchise by Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) but that villain never emerged. What a waste. Whether you love or hate Venom, writer Paul Wernick confirmed that Sony is working on a Venom spin-off:

“We’ve written two drafts of Venom, and the studio has it, and they’re pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward.”.  Of course, this begs the question how will this relate to the upcoming Spider-Man 4.  Wernick provided a very vague response, “Basically, the studio and Marvel and the Arads are taking our drafts and going beyond and figuring out what’s the next step.”

There is a silver lining to this.  Paul Wernick, along with co-writer Rhett Reese, wrote the highly anticipated Zombieland film.  While I’ve only seen the previews the movie looks brilliant. If they can bring that same sense of humour mixed with prevailing dread to Venom, I for one think the film may just work. No other details at this point but you’ll find them here as they develop.