He-Man Scribe Explains Movie Plans
Tom Hanks With The Aids
He-Man Scribe Explains Movie Plans 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.