Grayskull: Masters of the Universe - Part 2

[Thundarr]

You know, I found some pictures of some guys dressed up as He-Man for cosplay at Comicon (or some similar event), and I have to say they really looked the part. If these guys can act at all, one of them might make a really good He-Man. I'll try to find the pictures again and post them later on.

 

[Thundarr]

Cillian Murphy is way too weedy for Skeletor. He's like a more effeminate version of Tom Welling. Can't just cast someone for Skeletor because he has a bit of a gaunt face. Hollywood CGI can do that, just like it worked wonders for Two Face in TDKR.

They need to cast someone with a much more commanding presence.

I'd go with Christopher Walken. He just so damned good at being creepy.

 

[terry78]

The actor doesn't even need to be skinny and gaunt. That is why we have special effects. The actor needs to be able to be threatening yet at the same time a little of a ham. It wouldn't be Skeletor if he was played 100% straight.

 

[Lobo]

Cillian Murphy is way too weedy for Skeletor. He's like a more effeminate version of Tom Welling. Can't just cast someone for Skeletor because he has a bit of a gaunt face. Hollywood CGI can do that, just like it worked wonders for Two Face in TDKR.

They need to cast someone with a much more commanding presence.

That wasn't why I chose him, I think he is a damn good actor who would kill it in the role. Not just because he has a bit of a gaunt face.

 

[Dark Raven]

The actor doesn't even need to be skinny and gaunt. That is why we have special effects. The actor needs to be able to be threatening yet at the same time a little of a ham. It wouldn't be Skeletor if he was played 100% straight.

Skeletor isn't even skinny. It's just his head that is a skull. The rest of him is a pretty buff guy. They should get someone who could work as Keldor as well. I don't see Murphy being Keldor at all.

 

[Panthro]

I don't know. His horror remakes are all crap, but I quite enjoyed his Transformers movies (which were very financially successful if not critically). Considering all of the rewrites and new directors this project has had while languishing in Development Hell, Michael Bay might not be such a bad choice.

His Transformer movies were poorly written and featured one of the most unlikable male leads - Shia Labeouf - in the history of cinema. Box office be damned Bay is not the man to give Masters of the Universe to.

Cillian Murphy is way too weedy for Skeletor. He's like a more effeminate version of Tom Welling. Can't just cast someone for Skeletor because he has a bit of a gaunt face. Hollywood CGI can do that, just like it worked wonders for Two Face in TDKR.

They need to cast someone with a much more commanding presence.

Agreed. Skeletor needs to be played by an actor with a strong physical presence as well as projecting a persona that is frightening on an emotional level.

 

[Octoberist]

Transformers 2 was just an awful movie while the other two were okay. They were not made for geeks or fans really, just for the mainstream. Which is fine, but it doesn't have the mindset of Marvel Studios or most of geek friendly genre films.

I still remember how Bay promoted the first film and how he kept on consciously distant himself from anything geekery. It's like an 80's jock (IE John Hughes villain) directed the damn series.

 

[Paradox1]

I think Bay gets a bad rap for his Transformer movies. It's a movie about transforming robots made in the 80's to capitalize on toys. It really isn't Shakespeare I just don't see what else could be done. If they ever reboot the franchise I'd like to see them go full on Transformers 86 murdering everybody.

As far as He-Man and MOTU the source material I don't think is all that great to begin with. The original cartoon was extremely silly at times I think I remember seeing him punch a moon to stop it from crashing into Eternia. I know I may get some **** for this but the one guy I can see carrying this is the Rock aka Dwanye Johnson. He could however never pull off that blonde hair as He-man it would look so silly.

 

[Octoberist]

Nobody said it was Shakespeare. Neither was Pacific Rim or Fast and Furious but I cherish those movies over Transformers 2. I think he deserves the bad rap for that one at least. Even the fundamental storytelling was weak; we didn't see the Fallen till 40 minutes in, and felt like a footnote. People can blame the writers strike, but the strike didn't enforce the script that John Turturro showing off his butt in a thong.

 

[Thundarr]

His Transformer movies were poorly written and featured one of the most unlikable male leads - Shia Labeouf - in the history of cinema. Box office be damned Bay is not the man to give Masters of the Universe to.

I agree that Shia Lagoof never should have been cast in the film. And the human characters were poorly written. But I felt they got the actual Transformers right, and in the end that's what is really important. Personally, I thought the movies should have been more like the original Marvel comics, where the humans don't realize that there's a difference between Autobots and Decepticons and attack them both.

 

[Thundarr]

I don't know who these guys are, but either one of them could make a great He-Man (physically at least).

 

[TheVileOne]

Well he wasn't the director for any of those films.

Also I doubt Bay would do this anyway.

I see the property staying in this sort of development hell for the foreseeable future.

 

[Thundarr]

I think Bay gets a bad rap for his Transformer movies. It's a movie about transforming robots made in the 80's to capitalize on toys. It really isn't Shakespeare I just don't see what else could be done. If they ever reboot the franchise I'd like to see them go full on Transformers 86 murdering everybody.

As far as He-Man and MOTU the source material I don't think is all that great to begin with. The original cartoon was extremely silly at times I think I remember seeing him punch a moon to stop it from crashing into Eternia. I know I may get some **** for this but the one guy I can see carrying this is the Rock aka Dwanye Johnson. He could however never pull off that blonde hair as He-man it would look so silly.

The source material from the original 1980's cartoon wasn't all that great, but I've said from the beginning that they should base the new movie more on the 2002 reboot, which had a great back story. All of the classic characters were there (or at least a lot of them were), and many of their personal back stories were fleshed out a lot more (Fisto, Roboto, Mossman, etc). Making Teela the daughter of The Sorceress, Man-At-Arms being Teela's adopted father rather than her birth father. Hinting that Man-At-Arms' older brother, Fisto, is actually Teela's real father (though the series was cancelled before this could be explored any further). All of this stuff could make for a great series of live action films, if anyone could just get off their butts and write a half decent script.

I really don't see why this is so damned difficult. I've written a feature length script for a Thundarr The Barbarian movie, and I had a heck of a lot less source material to work with. Hell, I'm not even a professional writer! Yet these "trained professionals" can't seem to get their He-Man scripts right.

 

[dark_b]

are they having problems with the rights? strange that in a time when hollywood is obsessed with name recognition that no He-man is in production.

 

[TheVileOne]

No. The problem is that they can't get a script they are ready to approve and greenlight. Case in point, how many writers have been on this thing.

To sign off on this, it's not going to be cheap. And He-Man hasn't really been a relevant property since the 1980's.

 

[Thundarr]

I was about to say that, but you beat me to it.

The producer/studio are all set to make this happen, as is Mattel. But every script the studio approves of, Mattel rejects. Every script Mattel approves of, the studio rejects. It's a vicious cycle that doesn't seem to be ending any time soon.

As for He-Man no longer being a relevant property? Transformers wasn't a relevant property when those movies came out, and look how well they did at the BO. The same could be said for Scooby Doo, Speed Racer, or almost any film based on an old Saturday morning cartoon. They might not have all been critical successes, but they were quite successful at the BO. And to the studios, THAT is what's important.

 

[747]

It really isn't Shakespeare I just don't see what else could be done.

I don't get that mindset – like just because it isn't striving to be "Shakespeare" as you put it, it can't be judged for being good or bad.

Something going for simple fun can still be everything from terrible to amazing. It's not about what it is, but how it is.

 

[Panthro]

The source material from the original 1980's cartoon wasn't all that great, but I've said from the beginning that they should base the new movie more on the 2002 reboot, which had a great back story. All of the classic characters were there (or at least a lot of them were), and many of their personal back stories were fleshed out a lot more (Fisto, Roboto, Mossman, etc). Making Teela the daughter of The Sorceress, Man-At-Arms being Teela's adopted father rather than her birth father. Hinting that Man-At-Arms' older brother, Fisto, is actually Teela's real father (though the series was cancelled before this could be explored any further). All of this stuff could make for a great series of live action films, if anyone could just get off their butts and write a half decent script.

I really don't see why this is so damned difficult. I've written a feature length script for a Thundarr The Barbarian movie, and I had a heck of a lot less source material to work with. Hell, I'm not even a professional writer! Yet these "trained professionals" can't seem to get their He-Man scripts right.

In the bold - Teela was the daughter of the Sorceress with Man-At-Arms as her foster father in the original 1980s series as well. Otherwise yeah, I agree the 2002 series would be the best template to use with a little tweaking here & there, which sadly they probably won't.

 

[Dark Raven]

I don't remember in the 2002 series whether they explained that Skeletor was in fact Keldor, Randor's brother (and Adam's uncle). Or was that only in the comics at the time?

 

[Thundarr]

I don't remember in the 2002 series whether they explained that Skeletor was in fact Keldor, Randor's brother (and Adam's uncle). Or was that only in the comics at the time?

They did explain that Skeletor was In fact Keldor, but they never got around to revealing Keldor to be King Randor's brother. I think that they may have been saving that particular tidbit of backstory for a later season, but the series was cancelled before it could be added in. That's only speculation on my part though.

 

[Thundarr]

In the bold - Teela was the daughter of the Sorceress with Man-At-Arms as her foster father in the original 1980s series as well. Otherwise yeah, I agree the 2002 series would be the best template to use with a little tweaking here & there, which sadly they probably won't.

I don't remember Teela being revealed as the daughter of the sorceress in the original series. But then, it's been such a long time since I've seen it, I probably just forgot.

I don't see why they wouldn't use the 2002 He-Man series as the template for the movie. It had a continuous storyline that linked all the episodes together, rather than the original which was basically "Skeletor's Scheme Of The Week". There are also fewer characters, both heroes and villains, which means a smaller cast. Unlike the original series which was constantly adding new characters to both sides to correspond with the new figures being released by Mattel.

Using the 2002 series as the movie's template both cuts down on the amount of work which needs to be done, and the amount of rewriting. I said it before and I'll say it again. Just take the first four episodes of the 2002 series, and you pretty much have your MOTU movie right there. All that's left is to cast, shoot, and edit the damn thing.

 

[Pink Ranger]

As for He-Man no longer being a relevant property? Transformers wasn't a relevant property when those movies came out, and look how well they did at the BO. The same could be said for Scooby Doo, Speed Racer, or almost any film based on an old Saturday morning cartoon. They might not have all been critical successes, but they were quite successful at the BO. And to the studios, THAT is what's important.

I am a huge He-Man fan (I could have paid off all my student loans by now if not for Mattycollector(!) ) but I need to dispute a few of those assumptions. Transformers was comparatively a much more relevant property than MOTU before the Michael Bay movies. They had ongoing cartoons, ongoing popularity in Asia (a very important source of cash flow for any given toy property) and new toys still in production.

Scooby Doo was also still being broadcast in reruns and still quite popular among the segment of kids who don't like combat-based adventures (and there's a lot of them, think about who buys Archie comics). Speed Racer you are correct about, which is why the movie bombed.

And even though I am a big MOTU fan, even I have to admit from a business perspective, He-Man is a very, very difficult property to sell to a producer. The fact that Conan the Barbarian and John Carter both bombed does not help matters.

 

[Paradox1]

I don't get that mindset – like just because it isn't striving to be "Shakespeare" as you put it, it can't be judged for being good or bad.

Something going for simple fun can still be everything from terrible to amazing. It's not about what it is, but how it is.

There is a mindset you have to go into when watching a popcorn flick to get maximum enjoyment out of it. That mindset is to shut off your brain and don't dig any deeper than what is said or you see. That's is why I say it's not Shakespeare there is no deeper meaning for good robots fighting evil robots from space. When you try to make it more than that it's going to be a failure. It's like judging a 50 year old wine to a cheap soda, one of them is gets better with time the other starts looses it's fizzle 30minutes after you open it.

 

[Thundarr]

I am a huge He-Man fan (I could have paid off all my student loans by now if not for Mattycollector(!) ) but I need to dispute a few of those assumptions. Transformers was comparatively a much more relevant property than MOTU before the Michael Bay movies. They had ongoing cartoons, ongoing popularity in Asia (a very important source of cash flow for any given toy property) and new toys still in production.

Scooby Doo was also still being broadcast in reruns and still quite popular among the segment of kids who don't like combat-based adventures (and there's a lot of them, think about who buys Archie comics). Speed Racer you are correct about, which is why the movie bombed.

And even though I am a big MOTU fan, even I have to admit from a business perspective, He-Man is a very, very difficult property to sell to a producer. The fact that Conan the Barbarian and John Carter both bombed does not help matters.

I suppose Transformers managed to stay somewhat relevant over the decades, with reruns, reboot and spin-off shows popping up now and again. I never really noticed much in the way of Transformers merchandising though.

And Scooby Doo is one of those properties that tends to stand the test of time. There's the reruns of the original series, as well as newer series like The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo. Then there's the direct to DVD movies like Scooby Doo On Zombie Island and Scooby Doo & The Witch's Ghost. Which of course led to the updated series, What's New Scooby Doo?

But even though Mattel no longer has a He-Man toy line, doesn't mean that it's no longer a relevant property. There are still channels which show reruns of both He-Man and She-Ra. There are even channels which show reruns of The New Adventures Of He-Man and the 2002 reboot of He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe. Plus there is plenty of fan fiction, fan art, and fan films devoted to The Masters Of The Universe. It might not be AS relevant as Transformers, but it IS a relevant property.

And again, all they really need to do is take the story from the first four or five episodes of the 2002 He-Man reboot, and film it in live action. The script part is DONE! They just need to get a decent director and cast. Unfortunately the studio wants something "fresh and new". Which basically translates to them wanting to rewrite the entire mythology (hense the previous scripts eliminating He-Man, Skeletor, Beastman, Battle Cat, and essentially all of the recognizable characters from the story).

 

[Pink Ranger]

And again, all they really need to do is take the story from the first four or five episodes of the 2002 He-Man reboot, and film it in live action. The script part is DONE! They just need to get a decent director and cast. Unfortunately the studio wants something "fresh and new". Which basically translates to them wanting to rewrite the entire mythology (hense the previous scripts eliminating He-Man, Skeletor, Beastman, Battle Cat, and essentially all of the recognizable characters from the story).

I guess the really big problem with MOTU is getting kids to like it again, which is where the real money is. Kids liked Transformers and Scooby Doo well up to and beyond the recent movie reboots. The fact that the only MOTU toys being officially sold nowadays are fairly expensive ones to adult collectors through a fairly time-consuming online supply chain is telling how little He-Man means to kids.

Of course, I would absolutely love to see He-Man ditch the kid audience and be turned into an adult-oriented Taarna-like property, but I imagine most MOTU enthusiasts would call me a sick ****, which I richly deserve.