he-man Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I told you that He Man and the Masters of the Universe would find a new home. Mere weeks after being booted out of Warner Bros, Variety reports that the once and future king of Eternia has found a new home at Sony. As you might remember, Joel Silver and Warner Bros were unable to agree on a direction for He-Man, and Mattel promptly took its toys and went elsewhere.

But if you really dug everything to do with Warner Bros' version (which was reportedly titled Greyskull), you'll have some cause for lament. Sony plans on starting with an entirely clean slate, which means John Stevenson will no longer be directing, and that all the script work by Justin Marks and Evan Daugherty will be scrapped. All of those concepts belong to Warner Bros, not Mattel, who was only able to bring Sony the action figure.

One also has to be concerned with just who will be overseeing He-Man's latest incarnation. Escape Artists will be developing the project for Sony, and they've been responsible for The Taking of Pelham 123 remake, Knowing, Seven Pounds, and The Pursuit of Happyness. Without writers, a director, or cast attached, I don't want to predict doom and gloom but is that the kind of resume that screams success for He-Man?

He-Man will really have to call on the power of Greyskull if he hopes to get a movie made anytime soon. Variety has confirmed Latino Review's earlier scoop, and reports that Mattel and Warner Bros have parted ways on He-Man. All is not lost, as Mattel fully intends to shop the muscles from Eternia to other studios, and John Stevenson is expected to remain on board as director. Producer Joel Silver, who has been involved with developing He-Man since 2007, will have to say farewell as he's exclusive to Warner Bros.

The last we heard about Warner Bros' Greyskull was that the studio brought newcomer Evan Daugherty to revamp Justin Marks' script. Clearly, not even the rewrite kindled any enthusiasm, as Variety notes that Mattel and Warner Bros just didn't see eye to eye on the film. They made a mutual decision to let the project lapse this month.

But all is not lost for a happy marriage between Mattel, Warner Bros, and Silver as they still have Hot Wheels in development. Between you and me if you were going to let an option lapse, it'd be a movie based on a line of little toy cars. I'm not knocking them, I had tons of them. But even in my wildest kid dreams, I never saw them as movie material. But He-Man? Definitely! It had swords, sorcery, and a promise of PG-13 bloodletting. Someone else will see that, and quickly snatch Greyskull up for a buff blonde boy to turn into a franchise.

If you aren't a fan of screenwriter Justin Marks (and Erik Davis wasn't, calling him "the man they brought on to f*ck up He-Man"), you might be glad at this news, as he's apparently off the Warner Bros remake. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is bringing on newcomer Evan Daugherty to work his magic on a new draft of Grayskull. It's a big break for the man, as he only has the unproduced, Black List-hailed Shrapnel to his credit.

THR notes that the studio sees Grayskull as a gritty fantasy, and recasts the pageboy prince as a humble soldier named Adam, who sets off to find his destiny and winds up in the land of Eternia. There he encounters Skeletor, who is raising a technological army in the hopes of eradicating magic forever. Back in 2007, Marks was struggling to find a way to combine the cartoon's mix of swords, sorcery, and sci-fi: "You have to make it bothWe have to come up with specific ideas, grounded, that would spawn a world that was people carrying around swords, and yet, guys like Tri-Klops running around with his spinning visor and this sort of nano-technological way about him. What is the sorcery that can create stuff like that?"

Clearly, whatever way he found to combine it didn't meet to Warner Bros liking, though you might remember that Latino Review loved it. Marks' script was dead in the water before John Stevenson picked it back up, so it'll be interesting to see what becomes of the story hailed as a combination of Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and Batman Begins.

I have to admit it's kind of funny that if you do a quick search for the screenwriter Justin Marks, you will get "the guy they brought in to f*ck up He-Man" in your results (probably not very funny to him, but what can you do?). 'Digital reputations' aside, you have to hand it to the guy: with only a few credits to his name, he's managed to attach himself to some high-profile 'geek' properties in the last year. Marks will be working on McG's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, as well as Green Arrow: Escape From Supermax and Suicide Squad for Warner Brothers. Now, the latest to be added to the pile according to Variety is courtesy of Sony, who has hired Marks to write the screenplay for a feature film version of the PlayStation 2 game, Shadow of the Colossus.

Colossus centers on a young man named Wander who must battle sixteen giant bad-guys -- and I mean giant -- if he wishes to restore the life of a young girl. The game wasn't your usual action adventure fare, and players spent most of their time traveling on horseback in a desolate (but beautiful) landscape. In fact, the only action you see is when you encounter one of the 'Colossi'. Ultimately, the title was less action and adventure, and more of a puzzle game where you had to discern the weakness of each Colossi if you were to have a hope in hell of defeating it.

Since the game itself is pretty sparse on the details, Marks will most likely be tasked with trying to fill in a little more story in between action set-pieces. Of course, the big question still remains: Is Marks your man if you're looking for interesting characters and a solid story?

Here's some stuff (and things) currently making waves online ...

-- If you, like me, were really hoping Hollywood would bring back He-Man and do the character justice on the big screen, we all may be sh*t out of luck. That's because those basterds over at Latino Review tell us the latest version of He-Man (script written by wonder boy Justin Marks) is dead in the water. Because of executive shifts and a few high profile directors (Bryan Singer, Doug Liman) shying away from the project, it seems He-Man no longer has a home. LR suggests Warners put it into turnaround in the hopes someone else will take a chance on the blonde badass.

-- Liam Neeson will join Christina Ricci (odd pairing indeed) in the film After.Life, which marks Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo's feature directorial debut and tells of a young woman stuck between life and death. Neeson will play a funeral director who "appears to have the gift of transitioning the dead, but may be intent on burying her alive." Freaky. [The Hollywood Reporter]

-- They're hosting A Christmas Story convention in Cleveland at the end of November in honor of the film's 25th anniversary. Said convention boasts a reunion of eight original cast members (Scut Farkus? I'm there! Did you know he has yellow eyes? Yellow eyes!), as well as the premiere of two docs and a special preview of the upcoming A Christmas Story - The Musical (where can I buy tickets?). The downside? It's in Cleveland ... at the end of November. I'm cold just thinking about that. [more info at A Christmas Story House, via Slashfilm]

-- Remember the film Once? It won an Oscar? The song made people cry (not me, shut up, wanna fight about it)? Well, seems Once is becoming a musical, and is shaping up to hit Broadway for the 2010-2011 season. Both Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are expected to be involved. So, if Once - The Musical hits it big, will Hollywood then re-cast and remake Once, the indie? That's what you all need to be thinking about during dinner this evening. No questions asked! [Variety]

Last fall, Cinematical head honcho Erik Davis referred to screenwriter Justin Marks as "the guy they brought in to f*ck up He-Man." At the time, I wholeheartedly agreed with the boss man. But as of today, I'm changing my mind. If the script review over at Latino Review is to be trusted, Marks has done anything but f*ck up the adaptation of our beloved '80s cartoon series/action figure line. El Mayimbe has read the latest draft of Grayskull: Masters of the Universe, and he's graded the text an A+. And if that's not good enough for you, here's a sweet summation: "GRAYSKULL is LORD OF THE RINGS meets THE MATRIX and a little BATMAN BEGINS thrown in for good measure."

I don't know about you, but that sounds awesome. It certainly sounds better than both the 1987 He-Man adaptation, Masters of the Universe and the 1982 non-adaptation The Beastmaster, which I always thought of as a pre-He-Man He-Man movie (anyone else ever notice that Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time has the same plot as Masters of the Universe?). Of course, neither of those movies would be hard to beat. Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver could hire a monkey to write a better script.

Unless you're hoping to avoid spoilers, head over to Latino Review to read more praise and plot information for Grayskull (and weep for the omission of Orko). And after getting pumped up about that movie, keep in mind that Marks also wrote or co-wrote the scripts for the upcoming Green Arrow (formerly Supermax: Green Arrow), which IESB.net just reported is looking at a possible summer 2009 release date, Voltron and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (for which we shared another Latino Review script review last year).

By the power of J.J. Abrams, I give you the following nuggets of fanboy info:

• The brand spanking new Cloverfield trailer is now online! Only some dude (or dudette) recorded it on their cell during a sneak preview of Beowulf and you can hardly see the thing, it's crazy blurry. But what you do see is the title ... and, as previously reported, it's ... Cloverfield! Can I get a f*ck you J.J. Abrams for that one! Months dude, months. And you decide to say, "F*ck it, let's just leave it as Cloverfield." Then again, that's the title most people associate the film with, so I don't blame them (marketing-wise) for not changing it up too much. But ... still. Anyway, I'd personally stay away from watching the cruddy YouTube pirated trailer if I were you (not worth it, trust me), as a new clearer version will most likely hit the net within 24 hours. Will the film live up to all the hype? Sure it will ... just look at Snakes on a Plane. Or not. [via Filmstalker]
• Screenwriter Justin Marks (aka the guy they brought in to f*ck up He-Man) was interviewed recently in the new issue of Toy Fare, and he had plenty to say about his take on the new, updated, re-imagining, blah blah of everyone's favorite 80s blonde-haired surfer warrior on steroids. Here's a sample of the interview (which can be read in full over on IESB): Marks says, "He-Man is sword-and-sandals meets science fiction. If you avoid it and just try to make it sword and sandals, then it becomes a boring movie. If you just try to make it science fiction, it's going to be really kitschy and weird, and it's not going to be true to He-Man. You have to make it both. So we have to come up with specific ideas, grounded, that would spawn a world that was people carrying around swords, and yet, guys like Tri-Klops running around with his spinning visor and this sort of nano-technological way about him. What is the sorcery that can create stuff like that?" God bless my man, and good luck!