nee brothers masters of the universe

Directing brothers Aaron and Adam Nee are the latest to become attached to Sony’s ‘Masters of the Universe.’  The pair previously helmed the movie ‘Band of Robbers’ based on Mark Twain’s stories of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.  The brothers wrote that screenplay and Adam starred as Tom Sawyer.  Adam has also appeared extensively on Comedy Central’s ‘Drunk History’.  This would put the brothers in the same category as Anthony and Joe Russo, the brothers who have directed ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and the upcoming ‘Avengers: infinity War’ and the untitled ‘Avengers 4’ as well as the Duffer brothers, Matt and Ross, the masterminds behind Netflix’s smash hit ‘Stranger Things’.

There is a script in place, penned by Lindsey Beer and David S. Goyer.  Goyer (DaVinci’s Demons’) was attached to direct, but will now only serve as executive producer, although it is reported that Goyer will still be heavily involved with this movie.  Prior to Goyer, ‘Masters of the Universe’ was to be directed by John Woo (‘Mission Impossible II’), then John Stevenson (‘Kung Fu Panda’), John M. Chu (‘GI Joe: Retaliation’), Jeff Wadlow (‘Truth or Dare’) and McG (‘The Babysitter’).  ‘Masters of the Universe’ was planned to go into production… well, now.  But presumably, the Nee brothers will want to tweak the script and develop things from there.

‘Masters of the Universe’ was one of the most popular toy lines of the 1980s and spawned a hit syndicated animated series from Filmation, as well as an animated theatrical film and a live action movie starring Dolph Lundgren as lead character He-Man, Frank Langella as supervillain Skeletor, Chelsea Field as Teela, Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms, Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn, Christina Pickles as The Sorceress, plus a pre-‘Freinds’ Courtney Cox as human ally Julie Winston.

Unfortunately, shifting the action from the fantasy world of Eternia to Earth and heavily featuring ordinary human friends sank the 1987 live action movie.  It didn’t help that the ‘Masters of the Universe’ toy line was about five years old at this point and not the sensation that it once was.

‘Masters of the Universe’ has been in development hell for decades.  Here’s hoping that things might finally start moving forward.

Source: Variety