Sommers Taps Vosloo For Zartan, Casts Destro

Sommers Taps Vosloo For Zartan, Casts Destro
Posted on January 29th, 2008 at 9:30 pm by Editor

IESB is reporting that Stephen Sommers has cast Arnold Vosloo to play Zartan, a mercenary who works with Destro and Cobra. He is one of the main villains in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic and animated series. Zartan is a chameleon and can imitate anyone to an exact physical and vocal likeness. In the cartoon and comics his chameleon-like abilities were done through a mix of holograms, illusions and hypnosis. Zartan is also fluent in twenty languages and dialects, a ventriloquist, an expert martial artist, master archer and the leader of the biker gang known as the Dreadnoks who also suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder. The other members of the Dreadnoks, Buzzer, Ripper, Monkeywrench, Zarana, Road Pig, Zanya, Zandar, Thrasher or Torch are not expected to make an appearance in the live action film.

In other G.I. News, IESB also reports that Destro has been cast, he will be played by David Murray. Mainly acting in theater, he has been described as a cross between Alan Rickman and Clive Owen. A strong, good-looking dark haired actor, it is said he can pull off the “aristocratic snob” perfectly. And although Destro had a minor role in the original animated “G.I. Joe: The Movie,” he is the main baddie this time around. In the comics and the animated series, Destro’s full name is James McCullen Destro XXIV, and is Laird of Castle Destro in the Scottish Highlands. He is currently the head of M.A.R.S. (Military Armament Research Syndicate) and wears a mask forged from Beryllium Steel. His sense of honor, calm and cool demeanor and love for the Baroness character are his key traits. As a businessman, Destro is cutthroat and unyielding. He uses his own troops, the Iron Grenadiers, and hires mercenaries to stir up conflict in dangerous regions, then sells weapons to those armies. Continuing a tradition started by the first masked Destro, he will even sell to both sides of the same war.