By The Power Of Grayskull! After years of back and forth over a mooted adaptation of Masters of the Universe, with many different writers and directors attached to bring the series back to the big screen, Sony have now officially announced a release date for the return to Eternia.
Most recently linked to the project was McG, the filmmaker behind Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation and This Means War, and early last year he stated that he was to make the film and had met Twilight star Kellan Lutz about possibly playing the title role. But with the announcement of the new release date comes news that the director has now exited and the search is on for a new helmer. (via EW).
Indeed, many screenwriters have taken a stab at the screenplay with Christopher Yost (Thor: Ragnarok) and Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) amongst those hired previously. Now it’s been revealed that David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Trilogy) is rewriting the script and EW says that “many actors, including A-list talent, are vying for key roles.”
Masters of the Universe began life as a toy line back in 1982 produced by Mattel before becoming a record-breaking animated series between 1983-1986, which encompassed both He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power and ran for 223 episodes combined.
The series got the live-action treatment in 1987 when The Cannon Group Inc. produced a film with Mattel which starred Dolph Lundgren (The Expendables) as He-Man and Frank Langella (recently seen in Captain Fantastic) as Skeletor, but by the time the film made it to the screen both the toy line and Cannon were on the brink of collapse and the film failed at the box office and with critics, grossing around $17million in the US from its $22million budget. But it has since become something of a cult hit and was a huge success on VHS in the late 80’s.
Masters of the Universe is set for release on December 18th, 2019.
