Snake Eyes actor Henry Golding recently appeared at a Japan Special Event press conference to announce the start of the G.I. JOE film’s production in Japan.
During the press conference, Golding discussed the importance of seeing Snake Eyes without his mask on. In fact, he even went so far as to say that just seeing him with his mask on “missed things.”
Golding stated, “It’s an absolute honor to play such an iconic character. He’s probably one of the most recognizable characters created.”
He then stated, “For us to never really see what is beneath the mask, it always missed something. Snake Eyes was always seen as a weapon, as almost an inanimate object.”
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He continued, “But when you get to see someone’s eyes, you get to see their past, their future, the personality behind that.”
Golding then details that the film will be an origin story for Snake Eyes.
“We throw it back right to the beginning and see how he progresses and how he develops into this most sort of amazing character.”
He continued, “I’m super excited to share with everyone what Robert has come up with, with all of our producers and everybody at Paramount. Yea, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”
Answering a separate question, he really dived into the idea of the movie being an origin story for Snake Eyes, and indicated that they might be making some rather large changes to the franchise.
“It’s unlike anything that people would have seen. We are really starting a new timeline, a new franchise with the G.I. JOE universe. To kick it off with such a distinct and stylized film, I think it really sets the precedence for follow-up movies.”
He adds, “It’s amazing to be able to tread in unexplored sort of territory and be able to bring our own styles and Robert’s ideas and his love for Japanese cinema to the international audience.”
Along with Golding’s comments, Director Robert Schwentke detailed how Japanese cinema will influence the film:
Schwentke says:
“I’ve been a lifelong fan of Japanese cinema. It’s my favorite national cinema. To be here and shoot a film in all these locations and all across Japan is a great honor and it is a great joy. Just being here and being able to do this is a dream come true for me.”
He added, “I’m very excited to show American audiences and international audiences an aspect of cinema that I don’t think is in the mainstream for the most part.”
He then details a number of Japanese culture and cinema aspects that will appear in the film, “There is a lot of chanbara, there is a lot of car action, there’s a lot of elements that we’ve drawn out of Japanese culture and out of Japanese cinema.”
He continued, “We have some Yakuza in the film. There is some Ningyou ideas in there. So we are playing around with a lot of ideas that are very specifically Japanese and we are trying to get them right and I think that will make this film very, very special.”
Snake Eyes is expected to hit theaters on October 23, 2020. The film stars Henry Golding, Andrew Koji, Samara Weaving, Úrsula Corberó, Haruka Abe, Iko Uwais, and Takehiro Hira.
It is directed by Robert Schwentke and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner. Jeff Waxman, Erik Howsam, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger.