In a press release today, Sony Pictures and Escape Artists have decided to continue their partnership allowing Sony a continued first look deal with Escape Artists. So what does that have to do with a ‘Masters of the Universe’ movie? Well, in the same press release, the two companies listed a number of projects that they had that there were still in development and ‘Masters of the Universe’ was on that list.
Yes, for those of you who have been following He-Man’s road to the big screen, this is nothing new. After all, this movie has been in the works since 2007 when Joel Silver (‘Matrix’ franchise, ‘Sherlock Holmes’) tried to make it happen over at Warner Bros. They even had John Stevenson (‘Kung Fu Panda’, Madagascar’) to direct with a screenplay written by Justin Marks (‘Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun’Li’). When Silver and Warner Bros. couldn’t reach an agreement regarding the creative direction of the film, the project went dead. Then in 2009, Escape Artists obtained the rights and brought it to Sony where they could start from scratch to bring the project to life.
Now that leaves us at the end of 2011 with Escape Artists formally announcing that they are still working with Sony Pictures and ‘Masters of the Universe’ is a project that they still plan to do. As Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said in a statement, “They carefully choose the projects that they want to make and they have a very focused and disciplined development process. We couldn’t be more thrilled to continue our collaboration with them.’
Don’t groan. At least the project is still alive and there is hope yet. If it were just as easy as saying, ‘By the power of Greyskull…I have the POWER”, then we wouldn’t still be waiting to see ‘Masters of the Universe’ in theaters.
How much are you looking forward to seeing this movie go into production?
