The other day I did the press junket for “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” While I’m going to wait till closer to release to post the full transcripts of the roundtable interviews, I wanted to get part of the comments of Producers Sean Daniel and Bob Ducsay online immediately.

That’s because the two of them are also working on a few other projects you have heard of….like “G.I. Joe,” “Wolf Man,” “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” and “Magic Kingdom for Sale.”

The quick info is…"Wolf Man” will be showing some footage at Comic-Con and Producer Sean Daniel says it’s “an intense R-rated movie that will deliver.” He also said Rick Baker would be at the Con.

Regarding “G.I Joe,” Producer Bob Ducsay says “I think the fans will be really happy with it and I think that we’ve done—we’ve made a movie that will reach out to everyone.  I think that if you don’t know a single thing about “G.I. Joe” or G.I. Joe mythology you’ll be able to come into the movie and really enjoy the movie, but if you’re a fan I think you’re going to be really happy with how true we’ve been.”

With regards to “Ripley,” Sean is still trying to figure out who will direct and star in it…but it’s something still in active development.  

Finally, Bob Ducsay said that “we feel great confidence that “Magic Kingdom” will be made and I hope this year.” During the interview he explains what it’s about and what material it’s based on. While he hated the comparison...it sounds like a distant cousin of "Night at the Museum."

A lot more is below so enjoy the read. As always, if you’d like to listen to the interview, click here for the MP3. Look for the full transcript soon.

Q: Sorry to switch subjects—but you guys both have high profile projects on the horizon for next year.  Is there any sort of gentlemen bet between ‘Wolf Man” and “G.I. Joe”?

Sean Daniel: We root for each other.

Bob Ducsay: That’s what I was going to say. I have to say and I say this with all honesty Sean is one of the few people in Hollywood that I don’t feel competitive with.  What I mean by that is all I want is his stuff to work as well as it possibly could and I bet that it goes in reverse. 

Sean Daniel: No, it truly does so and it’s a movie I’m first in line for.  Steve Sommers, Bob Ducsay doing “G.I. Joe”.

Q: I was going to ask if you guys could just talk a little bit--because both projects there’s a lot of fan interest--could you talk a little bit about how “Wolf Man” is coming together and how “G.I. Joe” is coming together.

Sean Daniel: Well, “Wolf Man” just finished photography, so editing is literally beginning as we speak.  So we’ve got a long way to go.

Q: Right.  What are you showing at Comic-Con?

Sean Daniel: There’ll be a first glimpse—very short glimpse—of some footage. 

Q: Just Rick Baker or anyone else showing?

Sean Daniel: No, its’ going to be Rick.  I think at the moment it’s Rick. And Rick’s work is…

Q: Is it gory?

Sean Daniel: Well, it’s an R-rated…it is an intense R-rated movie that will deliver.

Q: We got a little bit on “Wolf Man” but I was curious how “G.I. Joe” is shaping up and you’re also editing the movie if I’m not mistaken.

Bob Ducsay: I am involved in that.  I have a….fortunately some days and unfortunately some days I wear 2 hats and I’ve done that on a few pictures now and this will be the 3^rd because I did it on “Mummy 2”.  I did it on “Van Helsing” and I did it on this one and fortunately I’m a fulltime producer and a fulltime editor, so what that means is that I work round the clock all the time.  So that’s the bad part of it.  The good part of it is that it is so fun to be so involved.  I do have the fortune that I’m not carrying the heavy load on “G.I. Joe”.  There’s another picture editor on it who’s heavily involved but the picture is shaping up extremely well. I think the fans will be really happy with it and I think that we’ve done—we’ve made a movie that will reach out to everyone.  I think that if you don’t know a single thing about “G.I. Joe” or G.I. Joe mythology you’ll be able to come into the movie and really enjoy the movie, but if you’re a fan I think you’re going to be really happy with how true we’ve been to…you know, what are the core interests of the fans.  At least I think we are.  We’ve tried hard to do that but it is a little bit of a balance and all films that have a big fan base have to go through this because it’s a very expensive picture, which means that it has to perform commercially for their to be another one and it does and because of that there are certain things that you have to think about.  You can’t expect the entire world knows all of the mythology of “G.I. Joe” so there are certain things we have to do and certain changes we have to make but I don’t think anybody’s going to be unhappy.  I actually think the fans are going to really love the movie.

Q: Seems like the “Transformers” model would be something to emulate ‘cos it’s the same era and…

Bob Ducsay: It’s not dissimilar at all and in fact Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, who…it was his property at Paramount who was producing the picture with me, was also producer on “Transformers” so he actually…I mean the sort of interaction…you know Hasbro is the IP owner of the material also so there is a lot of connection. But you know the pictures are very different, I mean, they’re different ideas, but there is a similarity.

Q: So can I do a follow-up and say what’s going on with “Magic Kingdom” and with “Ripley”?

Sean Daniel: Well, “Ripley” is a movie that we believe in and are determined to get made. 

Q: There’s been a lot of ups and downs with that project.

Sean Daniel: As with many movies.  If you’re a producer who believes in movies, you just have to stick with them. That is the key to it and we’re working with Paramount on figuring out who the next director should be and want to be gathered here talking about “Ripley” sometime in the future.

Q: I’d love that too.

Sean Daniel: Cool.

Q: So what’s going on with…?

Bob Ducsay: I’d say it’s a fairly similar situation in that I would say that there’s nothing that we have in development that we are more interested in making than “Magic Kingdom”.  It’s a fantastic story, fantastic material.  We actually think we have a very strong screenplay also.  We’re trying very hard to get the movie made.  I mean, it’s complicated to get any movie made.  It was hard to get “Mummy 3” made.  It’s just there are so few movies that get made.  The stakes are so high.  They cost so much.  “Magic Kingdom” is a very expensive movie.  Lots of digital work.  Anyway, the bottom line is the studio likes the movie a great deal, so it’s not like it’s a complete uphill battle.  It’s just hard to get movies made, finding the right director, getting exactly the right screenplay, having a star being interested, getting the cost of the movie under control.  All of those sorts of things come together that make these particular sorts of movies. “Ripley,” “Magic Kingdom”, “Mummy”, “G.I. Joe”, any of them. Any time you put all those things together it just becomes difficult to get them made, but we feel great confidence that “Magic Kingdom” will be made and I hope this year.

Q: And I guess I’ll do one other follow-up, you produced something that’s been on TV and cable—“Dazed and Confused”. 

Sean Daniel: Love that movie!

Q: One of my favorites.  So did you ever know back when you were making it like what it was going to become and talking 2 decades later, I mean almost…I don’t know how many years it’s been.  Decade and a half. 

Sean Daniel: Here’s what we knew. We knew we were making this really good heart filled, funny in life terms, movie that was really capturing something accurately. We knew the cast was really working well off of each other and so we had something that went pretty deep as a movie.  The studio actually at first was unsure of how to categorize the movie and, in fact, we had a huge fight with them about the initial release of the film.  History has born us out as being right but in the first wave, we didn’t get the wide release that we knew the audience was out there for.  And it is now dug in and become part of the culture and really deserves to be.

Q: Did you know the cast was going to be “A list”?  I mean, could you see it while you where there?

Sean Daniel: No, we just knew…and I just want to give huge…look this is Richard Linklater’s story.  It comes from his life.  He’s an artist and he had fantastic judgment about humanity in each of those characters. 

Q: Might as well also do one more…I was just going to say I’m going a little bit off of the always accurate “IMDB.”  I wanted to know if you guys have anything else that’s bubbling that might be ready to burst soon?

Bob Ducsay: I have to say for us I mean we’re honestly; I mean it’s interesting you mentioned “Magic Kingdom”.  It’s a high level of concentration right now for us because it’s something that we feel very passionate about, that we think will be a great movie and also very, very successful commercially.  So outside of the….well this movie’s not in post-production anymore but between this and “G.I. Joe” for us and “Magic Kingdom” that’s where we’ve been putting an enormous amount of our engery.

Q: If I could just do the question of could you tell us just a one sentence or a log line about the film for the people who don’t know for “Magic Kingdom”?

Bob Ducsay: I don’t know if I could explain it.  I don’t think I could do it in a log line.  It’s actually….because the thing is the story is a little bit more complex than that.  I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.  Probably “IMDB” has got the best log line.  They probably have the best log lines.

Q: Is that about Disney?

Bob Ducsay: No, it’s not.  It’s actually based on a, I think a 1981 New York Times best seller called “Magic Kingdom For Sale”.  Essentially it’s basically about….see I’m going to give the bad version.  I’m going to be quoted and everybody’s going to be upset about it, but basically it’s about a man whose life has fallen apart because of the death of his wife who is met with an opportunity to buy what turns out to be a literal Magic Kingdom.  And when he enters this Magic Kingdom with his family, he discovers that the Magic Kingdom was not what it was sold to be and if fact was in complete and total disarray.  And over the course of the picture, he mends the Magic Kingdom and his family. 

Q: It’s a little “Night at the Museum-ish”?  Is it like a cousin?

Bob Ducsay: Interestingly enough that you should mention that because, of course, in Hollywood you always use very, very…..no exactly you use a comparison like that to get certain people who need that simplicity to make your movie.

Q: Or people reading on the Internet.

Bob Ducsay: That’s exactly right.   I mean, I would say that there are some similarities but they’re not in any way a detriment to or a criticism to “Night at the Museum”, which I happen to love and we were actually involved with for a short time.  I think that the movie is a little bit more complicated than that though.

Q: So it’s more adult?

Bob Ducsay: It’s a family movie…but it is.  It’s a little bit more complicated and again, that is not a criticism.  And I’m saying that because I do love “Night at the Museum” but it isn’t a criticism of the movie.  I just think this is a little bit more complicated movie than that.  It’s goals are a little bit more ambitious. 

Q: I may be remembering incorrectly but was this the one that was released on the Internet before it actually came out?  They actually released a version of it like a virtual version?

Bob Ducsay: Of “Magic Kingdom”?

Q: Yeah.

Bob Ducsay: Not that I’m aware of.

Q: No?  Okay.

Bob Ducsay: Yeah, not that I’m aware of.    Anyway, thanks guys.  Much appreciated.