There are some movie ideas where you think to yourself “man, it would probably be bad, but I’d love to see it 10 times if they ever made it”. Another He-Man would be one of those projects for me. For ages there was word about another He-Man movie with John Woo set to direct it. That died. Then word came that “Kung-Fu Panda” director John Stevenson was going to helm it… but then we heard nothing. But now there are signs of life again.
Apparently Warner Bros has brought on yet another writer to take a shot at the script. A relative unknown named Evan Daugherty will start working on the new draft.
The problem I have isn’t with Stevenson or with Daugherty… but rather with the plot I’m reading over at the Hollywood Reporter. It sounds stupid as hell. Check it out:
Warners sees the big-screen version as a gritty fantasy and reimagines Adam as a soldier who sets off to find his destiny, happening upon the magical world of Eternia. There, Skeletor has raised a technological army and is bent on eradicating magic.
WHAT THE FUCK!?!?! Look, you guys all know that I’m completely ok with adapting stories and characters to make the jump from TV or Comic book or book to the big screen… AS LONG AS THEY MAINTAIN THE ESSENCE OF THE STORY OR CHARACTERS I’m fine with it…
Skeletor has a robotic army and wants to eliminate magic?!?!?! Skeletor is a Magical creature with a floating skull for a head! He main henchmen are magical creature and a sorceress. His main goal is to possess Castle Grey Skull and possess the magical powers therein. This is a complete reversal of the ESSENCE of the Skeletor character!!!
I don’t mind that Adam isn’t a prince. I don’t mind he is a solider… as long as they nail the basics of who he is, I’m fine… but the rest of this is just total lunacy in my opinon.
Oh well… guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out… but as of now I officially have no interest in this project.
Orko and madam raz and kowl and broom and cringer are all characters
that are doable in this day and age and it would be great to see some amazing effects, acrobatics, fighting scenes and as far from the eighties movie acting as possible. If anything at least a mortal combat type feel.
I think everyone would enjoy starting from the beginning with Adam as a prince with a world under terror from the possible take over of a dictator character skeletor. Using amazing costumes based on the futuristic barbarian type ones displayed in the cartoon. I think one huge plus in the movie would be to have the origional iconic he-man sword of power. And exact replica from the cartoon but give it a unique metallic look like wolverines claws in xmen or the way that the underground walls of the cerebro looked like in xmen. I think a he-man and she-ra sequal where he finds his sister through a portal to another world maybe filmed in bright colors and more magical than eternia would be great. With her jeweled sword and barbarian like clothing as well. I think all fans would appreciate a close make of the origional cartoon episodes with a few slight changes but giving the viewers more familiarity with whatthey know and loved as a kid. Writers always tend to change too much and viewers are left wondering why?
Whatever changes they make, I hope they keep Adam’s dual identity. I hope he still has a magic sword that changes him into the blond bombshell with hairy underwear. Okay, they can change the outfit, but keep some kind of transformation sequence. It lets us believe that we too can become powerful.
As for Skeletor, he may just be more clever than we think. Maybe he’s raising an army of robots to eradicate magic so he will be the only one left with magical powers. Then no one would stop him from getting his bony clutches on the jawbridge!
Save magic. Save Eternia.
This sounds like the stupidest thing ever.
I was about to comment on this whole deal, but somehow between “find his destiny” and “eradicating magic”, I lost my train of thought and have drawn a blank.
Forgive me.
unfortunately nailing the basics of Adam would also mean he would have to be gay
LOL, yes, but they could still “update/change” him without over doing it like that have here.
wait what happened to the guy who wrote Supermax who wrote a screenplay for this movie. Latino Review said it was dark, gritty and amazing.
Sounds terrible. sounds like the opposite of Beastmaster, but a sucky version. sounds like something I never want to see. They could rerelease the 80’s version and generate a larger new fan base than this movie would create.
I don’t know, like Transformers and G.I Joe, I grew up with He Man. I remember when I was little, every time my grandmother would take me to the mall with her, she’d always buy me a He Man toy and ofcorse I’d always watch the cartoon in the mornings. I’ve also seen the old movie many times over the years. I remember them doing another He Man cartoon in the early 90’s and it was more sci-fi like. Needless to say, it was just ok, but the toys were awesome. Then Cartoon Network did a series a few years back and it was actually pretty good and stayed very true to the original He Man story line, with some good animation. But it kind of just faded away after a while.
But growing up with He Man, I’m not that sure about this new take on it. It actually sounds pretty lame. More of like Narnia meets the Matrix with no creativity or something like that. Him raising and army of machines and hating magic, come on now. Skeletor should be all about using both magic and technology. But what gets me the most, is that Adam is a real world guy, who becomes a soldier and then happens to stumble upon this “magical world”. Remind you of Narnia at all? This idea has been way over done over the years, stumbling upon a “magical world”. I mean I can understand it for kids movies, but come on, jeez. Why can’t they just leave He Man as it is, just make it more adult like. My God, Hollywood thinks the average movie audience has no imagination at all don’t they. You’d think that after all this time, after all the highly creative and imaginative movies that have come before over the decades, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars comes to mind, that they would FINALLY give movie audiences the benefit of the doubt.
It should be more like Conan meets He Man, with some deep, dark sci-fi thrown in or something to that effect.
Maybe it’ll work, maybe I will be wowed, but I just don’t see it yet.
So they had a script by Justin Marks who wrote the new Streetfighter movie and now they’re getting a new writer? What a shock!
Same thing for this movie as Conan, I just don’t think it’s going to get made.
guys just cos it says ‘Skeletor has raised a technological army and is bent on eradicating magic.’ doesnt mean he is not magical.
The 80’s movie was bad cheesy fun, but damn Frank Langella RULED as Skeletor. Had the rest of the movie been as well thought out as Skeletor’s charatcer was it would have ruled.
That being said, I agree that Skeletor should NOT be unmagical. He was an evil sorcerer and that is how he should stay. I would like to see an updated version of Masters Of The Universe. What they do need to do is avoid the words “he man” I know that is how it is known, but to reach a wide audience you need to drop the cheese factor, and using “he man” give it a HIGH cheese factor.
I loved this show as a kid. I would come home from a day at school and He-Man and my dad would be there. This could be an amazing movie if done right. I’m with John, Adam doesn’t need to be a prince, but to make Skeletor unmagical is too far removed from the basic premise. With the power of Greyskull, don’t take away the magic…
There was a script review that Latino Review talked about a while back for the He-Man movie that actually sounded REALLY good, like a mix between Lord of the Rings and various sci-fi elements. That movie would be worth seeing, but this one? Ugh. I’ll stick with the 80’s movie with Dolph Lundgren, Billy Barty and Courtney Cox.