Tom Hanks Develops Major Matt Mason Film

[Tom]

What a hoot! Maybe we'll get some cool new toys!

Tom

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1593026/tom_hanks_develops_major_matt_mason.html?cat=40

Apollo 13 and Toy Story Star to Play Both an Astronaut and a Toy

Tom Hanks, famous for his roles as an astronaut in Apollo 13 and as a
toy in the Toy Story series, is going to get to play both an astronaut
and a toy in a film under developed by Universal based on the 1960s
action figure, Major Matt Mason.

The Major Matt Mason toys were first introduced by Mattel in the 1960s
to tie into the excitement of NASA's lunar program. The Matt Mason
action figure came with three other figures, Sgt Storm, Doug Davis, a
civilian astronaut, and Lt. Jeff Long, an African American, remarkable
twenty
Tom Hanks Develops Major Matt Mason Film
years before an actual African American astronaut, Guy Buford, flew
on board the space shuttle. The Matt Mason action figures came with a
three level "space station" (actually a lunar base), and various
battery powered vehicles and accessories. The Major Matt Mason line
was discontinued in the 1970s as interest in the US space program
waned.

The Major Matt Mason film will be a live action feature, starring Tom
Hanks as Matt Mason, who will also produce along with Gary Goetzman.
Graham Yost, who collaborated with Tom Hanks in the series From Earth
to the Moon and who wrote the Brian De Palma film Mission to Mars,
will write the screenplay. There is no word on who will direct at this
time.

The Major Matt Mason film will be just the latest in a series of
movies based on toys that are either being filmed or under
development. The most famous of this genre is the upcoming GI: Joe
film being directed by Stephen Somers.

Tom Hanks will bring to the project, along with considerable artistic
talent, a passion for the space program and space exploration. That
passion certainly showed in Apollo 13 and From Earth to the Moon, the
later the definitive dramatization of the Apollo lunar exploration
program that originally aired on HBO. Tom Hanks also produced, co-
wrote, and narrated a 3D documentary about the Apollo Moon landings
entitled Magnificent Desolation.

Clearly a Major Matt Mason film will serve as a tie in to the current
American lunar effort, scheduled to return astronauts to the Moon
about 2019. The Orion lunar effort has been endorsed by Presidents and
Congresses of both parties and thus there seems every chance of
Tom Hanks Develops Major Matt Mason Film
it navigating the political shoals that might have wrecked such a
high profile undertaking. Oddly enough, like Major Matt Mason's crew,
the Orion lunar expedition is designed to have a crew of four
astronauts.

And one would expect a new line of toys to be marketed by and by.