For the second time in the last year or so, Warner Brothers recently killed off their planned new live-action He-Man movie, which was preferably called Greyskull for a while, and then back to Masters of the Universe. Both moves came as a surprise as, even though it is He-Man, a review of the Justin Marks script by Latino Review claimed that it had a ton of potential and a real Lord of the Rings vibe to it. The reasoning behind Warner Bros. ultimately dispatching the classic property? It looks as if the studio and the creative sides of the project just could not see eye to eye, and decided it would be best to drop it and move on.
Now comes word that Columbia Pictures didn’t wait too long to go right after the property, and at last notice, they are in negotiations to acquire it. If this deal does move through without a hitch, though, there’s a good chance it could come with a price those of you looking forward to the project won’t swallow easily.
When WB was making the movie, they had hired John Stevenson to direct it (Read: Confirmed: ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Director For New ‘He-Man’ Movie). Stevenson only really had experience with animated movies, having just co-directed Kung-Fu Panda at the time of his hiring. With these new developments, Columbia would start completely over from scratch, which means a new director, and even possibly a new script.
Considering the lack of experience Stevenson has, getting a new director wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but if they choose to replace a script that already has a ton of appeal to we the 20 and 30-somethings who loved He-Man as children, it could prove fatal.
Basically, this looks to be going one of two ways: one would involve them trying to obtain and use Justin Marks’ script with a new director and film making team; the second would probably involve them going more family-orientated. Let us hope for the the former, because I really don’t see those of us who want this movie to happen being too giddy about a kiddie He-Man.
Where do you the people stand; do you care? And if you do care and would love to see this, does it matter which way they go with it?
[Source: THR]
