Considering how incredibly successful G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was, the development of it's sequel has been quite slow. While most blockbuster sequels begin pre-production the day after the first weekend results come in, the only thing G.I. Joe 2 has going for it at the moment is a script by Zombieland scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese and no director. If the film does eventually get going, however, at the very least they will have a guy to play Storm Shadow.
THR reports that Lee Byung-hun, who played the white ninja in the first film, will return for the sequel, which is still without a helmer. The report is quite short but does confirm that Wernick and Reese are still working on the script and the plan is to start filming in June in preparation for a summer 2012 release.
Perhaps Paramount sees how ridiculously crowded the blockbuster schedule for 2012 is and has decided to put more time and effort into the production to try and make it actually stick out of the crowd. If the sub-par first one can make $302 million worldwide, then just imagine how well a quality film could do.
