Director Jon Chu Gives Update On MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

While G.I. Joe: Retaliation is about to overshadow the first film with expected big worldwide box office numbers this weekend. It's director Jon Chu should take some pride in the fact a lot of fans are rallying around the more "faithful" film. Next he'll be tackling another 80's toy/cartoon property with a reboot of Masters of The Universe. Chu gives IGN a brief update on the project which has a script from Alex Litvak (Predators) was picked up by Sony when Warner Bros. gave up on it. There is also talk of having Dolph Lundgren (Expendables 1-2, Universal Soldier Movies) who played the original He-Man come back to do a cameo.

“We’re still early but we’re deep in experimenting. This is the most fun phase for me because we get to try everything we’ve ever wanted to try in [Masters of the Universe] and then we get to throw out all the things that don’t work, which is most of it. [This allows us to know] what our tone is, where we’re going to head with it and it’s a very important phase because it shows [us] the direction we’re going to go in the future. So we’re very early, we don’t know a lot yet other than that we’re playing around and having a lot of fun.”


Jon also spoke with ToplessRobot and gave a little bit more about the remake.

"We're going for slightly more serious, and I wouldn't say "serious" as a dark tone you don't necessarily want He-Man to be in, but it's not campy. We're not going campy. It's sort of an origin story of how He-Man came to be, and to me that gives you a lot of opportunity to create real culture in this world. What is Eternia really like, what are the cultures, what are the languages they're speaking, what are Snake Men, what are Beast Men, what are all these things, and how do they exist in this world? So we're taking a real look at creating life on this planet, on this world, that hopefully will translate. And again, we're in a very early designing phase of it, the script is great, but we're still very early at figuring out exactly how theatrical we go, and how real we go, and how dark we can take it." 

Five Projects That Could Use Some Joss Whedon Magic

Now that Joss Whedon's Avengers is quickly on it's way to become one of the biggest films of all-time. Whedon will likely be getting dozens of offers from other studios with the hope of creating a new franchise or rebooting old ones. Hopefully this new success solidifies Joss as a feature film director and he keeps making large scaled films. A bunch of budding projects and ones stuck in development limbo could use some Whedon magic.

AKIRA: This horribly handled adaptation by Warner Bros. had recently put on hold when the studio couldn't lock down a budget. One of the bigger issues was that the film would have almost zero similarities to the original manga and anime. Changing the characters (white-washing casting) and setting to be completely Americanized rather than embracing it's Japanese roots. Whedon has proven he's able to faithfully adapt similar material while creating more of cinematic scope and balls out action. An Akira film needs thrilling action set pieces and solid three dimensional characters which Joss could deliver with a brand new script.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: MOTU is finally back in the works thanks to Universal. Whedon's stunning Cabin In The Woods script proves he could handle something like this. If you seen the film you know what I'm talking about. It could even use the satirical elements that were used in Cabin since it's going to be tough to make a serious He-Man film without going along with the joke.

GHOST IN THE SHELL: Yet another another manga/anime project that's been in development for ages. Dreamworks and producer Steven Spielberg haven't really done much with this besides hiring Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Battle Angel) to write a script a few years back. I feel that Whedon could really knock this out of the park with being able to create strong female leads and supporting casts. Plus his background with Firefly means he can create a sci-fi focused futuristic world.

FLASH GORDON: Gordon has to be one of the greatest swashbuckling characters ever created. It's last live-action film made in the 80's is considered one of the best camp science fiction films ever made. The tongue-and-cheek action flick seems like a perfect project for Joss and seems like he could spread his wings creatively in the process. A script and director had been put together for a new film back in 2010 but nothing has come of it.

HALO: One of the biggest missed opportunities has to be this video game adaptation as at one point with both Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) and Rupert Sanders (Snow White And The Huntsman) had been attached to direct the film. The two budding directors had directed popular live-action Halo commercials before jump into their own franchises. Blomkamp actually had started pre-production on it before the studio and Microsoft shut it down. Sanders had been more rumored but he would eventually remove himself from the running as he's now focusing on a Huntsman spin-off to Snow White And The Huntsman. I'm sure a new Halo film with Joss Whedon directing and handling the script could spark another bidding war to make it.

He-Man Movie Back On Track At Sony

It hasn't been a great journey for the He-Man: Masters of The Universe reboot. Originally setup at Warner Bros. with producer Joel Silver and director John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) going to make the remake. The project eventually seemed too expensive or creatively off for the studio and it got the axe. There hasn't been any news on the film until now. BleedingCool reports Sony is resurrecting the project at Escape Artists. No screenwriter or director has been mentioned but with the success of Thor this now might be a priority for Sony. A mix between Thor and Flash Gordon the film has some potential to become a fun fantasy blockbuster. This movie could really work if the scale is there along with a strong cast.

I feel like the Hemsworth brothers would be perfect for the role of He-Man. Chris Hemsworth has pretty much edged himself as the go to guy for fantasy leads with roles as Thor and The Huntsman. I think if anyone could breathe a third dimension into to He-Man it would be Chris. His brother Liam is also gathering some action credit of his own with Hunger Games and Expendables 2 on the horizon.