For the past two years, Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver have been busily trying to find a way to bring Mattel’s Masters Of The Universe toys back the the big screen. However now Variety is reporting that the studio has backed out of the He-man and co. film, apparently because Warner and Mattel didn’t see eye-to-eye over the direction to take the movie, and so a mutual decision was taken to let the studio’s option on the franchise lapse.
While in the past studios were used to just being able to buy the film rights to projects and then do whatever they wanted with them, ever since the success of Hasbro’s Transformers and with others watching how Marvel took control over how their characters got to the big screen, studios have had to get used to the fact that franchise owners now get a much bigger say over film plans and have far higher expectations.
The good news for fans of Skeletor is that this doesn’t mean the film is dead. Mattel is now planning to take back Masters Of The Universe and set up the movie elsewhere. Director John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) is staying with the project during this transition, although Joel SIlver is out, as he only works for Warner. However Hot Wheels is still in development at Warners, so it doesn’t sound like the studio and Mattel completely hate each other.
Rather than making a new Masters Of The Universe movie, we don’t know why they don’t just re-release the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie, which is second only in the camp superhero movie chart to Flash Gordon. It’s a truly bizarre film that deserves a bit of a resurection, and we’re sure no new He-man movie could outdo it. Well, okay, it wouldn’t be tough to outdo it, but you should rewatch the 80s flick anyway and Marvel at the strangeness.