If you haven’t noticed, toy adaptation movies are rapidly becoming the new “comic book” movie. Thanks to Michael Bay’s handling of Transformers, there are now plans for everything from Thundercats to G.I. Joe. In between those is a planned He-Man and the Masters of the Universe flick.
Now, there’s already been one He-Man picture, that wonderful opus of the ‘80s starring Dolph Lundgren. It wasn’t exactly true to the story established by the toy line or the comic book, though, and that, along with the kitschy charm of the ‘80s, has fans a bit jaded about the possibility of creating a decent He-Man picture. Well, screenwriter and He-Man fan Justin Marks is here to ease those concerns. Here’s what he told Toyfare Magazine in their recent interview:
- Despite rumors to the contrary, this will be a movie true to the He-Man mythos, about He-Man and Eternia: “There's some stuff going around...we should clear that up. There's some rumor spreading that he's a soldier in the Iraqi war. Where did they get that? This is an Eternian movie and it's a story about an Eternian hero. We're not going to Earth, here. We're not going to the modern world. We're not going to a strip mall in the Valley”
- As stupid as it sounds, the protagonist of the movie will be called He-Man: “[Laughs] We're doing something very interesting with that. But...yeah. Obviously you can't make a He-Man movie and be afraid of the word "He-Man." You have to get into there. But I think fans will be very pleased when they see how "He-Man" is spoken.”
- Part of sticking to the existing mythos means the villain will be Skeletor: ”It's a Skeletor movie. Obviously we can only speak in broad strokes, but how about this? Thus far, at least, there are no invented new characters plopped into it-and if we and Mattel have our way there will never be.”
- The new movie won’t be tied to the campy Lundgren picture: “What we're talking about doing, in the same way as Batman Begins, we're going back to the original thing, let's build it from the ground up again. How can we find our way in? How can we jump into Adam's life at an interesting point where new audiences will respect him? It's an Adam origin story, and it's a Skeletor origin story. We want to see where both of them come from and how they got that way. If we don't see the humanity and the truth in what Skeletor's trying to do, then the story's not compelling.”
- The stage could be set for more than one movie: ”We campaigned and pushed-everything short of getting on my hands and knees begging-for Mattel to hear it, and they did. We got in the room and we basically spoke through not only one movie, but three movies, all the way down through our dreams for the titles for the second and third movies and which characters appeared when.”
I’m excited to hear that Marks has the right idea for a new reboot of the franchise. Now if the picture can just find a director that will carry that vision through to the final product. Other comments made in the interview (such as not wanting a wrestler in the lead role) really make me think this has a lot of potential.
If you don’t read Toyfare, check out more of the interview online at IESB.
