Kevin Smith Compares Bruce Willis To Harry Potter's Dementor

While appearing on the latest episode of AMC's Geeking Out, which is hosted by Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg, screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese confirmed they are penning the script for Zombieland 2, explained how the elusive Bill Murry ended up making that memorable and hilarious cameo in Zombieland, revealed that Ryan Reynolds dipped into his own pocket to make sure they were on the set of 20th Century Fox's Deadpool, and in a bonus YouTube segment discussed how difficult it was working with Bruce Willis on 2013's G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Of course, Kevin Smith was super-excited to hear about their issues with Willis since he had his own issue with Willis while directing the former action-star in the 2010 buddy-cop film, Cop Out. In the past, Smith has called it a "soul crushing" experience.

Smith asked the writers, "Did you guys survive Bruce Willis?" "We just barely survived Bruce Willis," Reese replied. "He's a very hard man to please. He didn't like a lot of our stuff." According to Reese, during the fith or fourth day Willis was on set of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, he looked over the dialogue they wrote for his character, General Joseph Colton (a.k.a. the original G.I. Joe), and phsyically reacted in a negative way.

Knowing that Willis is tough to please, Wernick and Reese prepared ahead of time by writing "a ton of variations on what these lines could be," but each time Reese pitched an alternate line, Willis would reply, "Pass." Once Reese got to a final line that he wasn't even all that jazzed about, Willis made the "gameshow buzzer" noise. Ouch!

Smith added, "If you've ever seen those Harry Potter movies, he's the Dementor." In agreement, Reese said, "I did get my soul sucked on a little bit in that moment."

A follow-up to the 2009 release of G.I. JOE: RISE OF THE COBRA, which grossed over $300M worldwide, Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions, in association with HASBRO and di Bonaventura Pictures, commences production on G.I. JOE: RETALIATION. In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. The film stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce, RZA, Ray Stevenson, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson. Directed by Jon M. Chu, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner, from a screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick.