Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum have been cast as the leads in Paramount’s G.I. Joe, based on the Hasbro military action figure line. Quaid will play team leader General Hawk, and Tatum will play Duke Hauser, the lead soldier who works closely on missions with fellow team member Ripcord, played by Marlon Wayans.

Also cast are Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rachel Nichols, Sienna Miller, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Said Taghmaoui. Stephen Sommers is directing. Shooting is scheduled to start next month for an Aug. 7, 2009 release.

Quaid recently finished shooting the Gary Fleder-directed The Express, a biopic of college football star Ernie Davis. He will next be seen in the Noam Murro-directed Smart People and the Pete Travis-directed Vantage Point. Tatum recently completed the Kimberly Peirce-directed Stop Loss and just landed the role of Pretty Boy Floyd in the Michael Mann-directed Public Enemies, which also stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.

EW