The movie that will NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS GET MADE a.k.a. ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,’ has not at all surprisingly lost another director. McG, best known for the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ movies and a bunch of Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray music videos in the 90s, has been attached to this project since early 2016, but has now walked away. This follows the departure of directors John Woo, John M. Chu, Joe Cornish, Rian Johnson, Andrés Muschietti, Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, Mike Cahill and Jeff Wadlow. Sony is now meeting with more directors in hopes of making this happen.
It actually seemed like things were on track. Actor Kellan Lutz best known for the ‘Twilight’ movies met with McG and producer Mary Viola and things seemed to go well. In fact, the beefy star took to Twitter to say he’d had an “amazing meeting” with the director and producer. But now that the director has departed, it’s unclear if Lutz is even still in the running to play Prince Adam/He-Man.
However, it’s is also reported that some of Hollywood’s biggest names are lobbying for other roles in this movie.
David S. Goyer (‘Batman V Superman’, the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, ‘Man of Steel’) has been brought onboard to write the script, which I’m guessing will be really super extremely dark. It’s also possible that the final battle between He-Man and Skeletor will come down to one of them uttering the word “Marlena!” and suddenly it’s all over.
Even director-less, Sony has scheduled a release date for this movie– Dec. 18, 2019.
Mattel’s Masters of the Universe was one of the biggest toy sensations of all time. It was the biggest selling toy of 1982 and the accompanying syndicated cartoon series was the top rated kids show of that era.
But that was 35 years ago!
Lionsgate just scored a hit with ‘Power Rangers’ which not only attracted kid but Millennials that grew up with that franchise, which began in 1993, eleven years after ‘Masters of the Universe’.
Some eighties properties have continued to strive, like ‘Transformers’ and ‘My Little Pony’, but those brands have continued to reinvent themselves over the decades to appeal to children of the times. Mattel attempted to bring ‘Masters of the Universe’ back in 2002 but it failed. The new cartoons were a flop and the only ones buying the new toys were adults that had collected the originals in the eighties.
It’s really unclear how Sony will market this. It’s essentially a dead property. The kids that played with these toys are now outside of that desired demographic that studios target.
But Sony really seems to want this to be a thing, so it might materialize. Keep checking back. If any more develops we will let you know!
‘Masters of the Universe’ directed by nobody, starring nobody will hit theaters on Dec. 18, 2019.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
