G.I. Joe-Transformers Crossover Movie Lands ‘Jurassic World’ Writer Derek Connolly

Derek Connolly, the franchise scribe whose work includes Jurassic World movies and Detective Pikachu, has a new sandbox in which to play.

Connolly has been tapped to pen the script for Paramount’s untitled Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover action project that is to star Chris Hemsworth.

The crossover feature will bring together two of Hasbro’s biggest toy lines, Transformers and G.I. Joe. It will pit the good guys — the robots in disguise Autobots and heroic Joes — against their archenemies, the dastardly Decepticons and conniving terrorist organization Cobra. While a team-up of the two toylines has happened in comic book form (the first in a Marvel Comics title in 1987), it has never occurred on screens, big or small.

The proposed film follows the events of last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which ended with Anthony Ramos’ character getting a job offer from the Joes. 

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Michael Bay, Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy are producing.  Steven Spielberg and Hasbro Entertainment will executive produce. 

Connolly is a frequent collaborator of director Colin Trevorrow and made his feature screenwriting debut with the director’s breakout, Safety Not Guaranteed. The movie earned him the Independent Spirit Award for best first screenplay in 2013 and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance 2012.

That movie put him into the playground of dinosaurs and Jedi. He worked with Trevorrow on Jurassic World, the 2015 movie that rebooted the dino-franchise and made $1.67 worldwide, and 2018 entry Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Along the way, he earned credits on Legendary’s Monsterverse entry Kong: Skull Island, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and 2019’s Pikachu.

More recently, he worked on Sony and Nintendo’s adaptation of classic video game The Legend of Zelda, which has Wes Ball on board to direct.

He is repped by Verve and Ginsburg Daniels.