Grayskull: Masters of the Universe - Part 2

[Jordacar]

That's not going to happen. Also, if he dubs over He-Man's voice, doesn't that make the secret identity quite obvious?

Not really. The same actors voiced He-Man and Adam on each of the cartoons. I think the old cartoon added a bit of reverb. In that regard, it's not that different from Superman and Clark Kent, where the two have notably different speech patterns, even though it's essentially the same guy.

I really want Prince Adam in there; without him He-Man just doesn't have a whole lot going on character-wise.

 

[TheVileOne]

Cam Clarke actually changed his voice to play He-Man after transforming though.

I think the obvious solution IMHO is not two different actors. Same actor. Just dress him down when he's Adam and make him look smaller.

 

[DawnWarrior]

That would be the obvious one (and would make it look like the old cartoon), but I don't think that would make sense if he's carrying on a secret identity. My idea for how to do it is a little more complicated: One average-sized guy plays Adam, another big giant guy plays He-Man. Make them look sort of similar (this could be CGI-assisted like Captain America, but I think just casting the right guys and using a few make-up effects would be enough, like in Looper). And then have one of the actors do the voice for both (pitched down for He-Man of course), so it's more like the cartoon that way.

 

[TheVileOne]

That would be the obvious one (and would make it look like the old cartoon), but I don't think that would make sense if he's carrying on a secret identity. My idea for how to do it is a little more complicated: One average-sized guy plays Adam, another big giant guy plays He-Man. Make them look sort of similar (this could be CGI-assisted like Captain America, but I think just casting the right guys and using a few make-up effects would be enough, like in Looper). And then have one of the actors do the voice for both (pitched down for He-Man of course), so it's more like the cartoon that way.

It's a fantasy movie, and it works for Henry Cavill.

Also whoever they cast isn't going to want to be shoehorned in just one or the other. Whoever is He-Man will not be happy with getting his voice dubbed over. Dolph Lundgren had it written into his contract for the 1987 movie that he'd get several tries to use his own voice for the film.

 

[Jordacar]

Cam Clarke actually changed his voice to play He-Man after transforming though.

I think the obvious solution IMHO is not two different actors. Same actor. Just dress him down when he's Adam and make him look smaller.

Yeah, so did John Erwin. I like the idea of Adam's actor dubbing He-Man because it could help create that subtle connection in the audience's mind without making it too obvious for the characters.

 

[DawnWarrior]

It's a fantasy movie, and it works for Henry Cavill.

True, but like was mentioned earlier, I'm suggesting something a little more like Billy Batson into Captain Marvel, so they can fully embrace the transformation. Besides, we only saw Cavill wear the glasses for like 5 seconds; still gotta see the next movie to see how he plays it.

Also whoever they cast isn't going to want to be shoehorned in just one or the other.Whoever is He-Man will not be happy with getting his voice dubbed over.

We don't know what the actors will want to go with until we try it.

Dolph Lundgren had it written into his contract for the 1987 movie that he'd get several tries to use his own voice for the film.

Wait, I don't understand what you mean. He got to use his own voice? As opposed to...? I don't get it.

 

[TheVileOne]

True, but like was mentioned earlier, I'm suggesting something a little more like Billy Batson into Captain Marvel, so they can fully embrace the transformation. Besides, we only saw Cavill wear the glasses for like 5 seconds; still gotta see the next movie to see how he plays it.


We don't know what the actors will want to go with until we try it.


Wait, I don't understand what you mean. He got to use his own voice? As opposed to...? I don't get it.

His own voice instead of getting dubbed over. Since English isn't his first language, the producers wanted to dub over his voice with another actor. Lundgren had it written into his contract that he'd get several attempts at using his own voice acceptable for the film so they wouldn't dub it over.

In the olden days, not uncommon to dub over foreign actors for English language movies because while they could speak English, they had heavy or thick accents. Now they usually try to let the actors use their own voice. Actors are egotistical. They don't want their dialogue to be dubbed over.

Do you think that's Ursula Andress' actual voice in Dr. No? Guess what, it isn't.

 

[DawnWarrior]

Wasn't Gina Carano's voice in Haywire either, so I know what you mean.
Or when they got David Hyde Pierce to dub over Doug Jones in Hellboy. That was messed up. Even Pierce thought so.

This is fun. It's like we're in a chat.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Do you think that's Ursula Andress' actual voice in Dr. No? Guess what, it isn't.

I think most of the guys here who saw that movie are barely aware her character had any dialogue whatsoever.

 

[Jordacar]

Do you think that's Ursula Andress' actual voice in Dr. No? Guess what, it isn't.

Yeah, same with Auric Goldfinger, iirc. And don't forget Schwarzenegger's earliest roles.

Carano's the most recent example I can think of. It's amusing to think back when Haywire first came out and there was all this hushed speculation about whether or not it was her real voice. Of course now anybody can put that movie on and go, "Oh yeah, she sounds nothing like that IRL."

I suppose one way to get around this sort of thing would be for the actors playing He-Man and Adam to work together much more closely to develop the overall performance, especially since they would both be appearing onscreen. So it wouldn't come off nearly so shady as the studio deciding well after the fact that the performance needs punching up.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah, same with Auric Goldfinger, iirc. And don't forget Schwarzenegger's earliest roles.

Carano's the most recent example I can think of. It's amusing to think back when Haywire first came out and there was all this hushed speculation about whether or not it was her real voice. Of course now anybody can put that movie on and go, "Oh yeah, she sounds nothing like that IRL."

I suppose one way to get around this sort of thing would be for the actors playing He-Man and Adam to work together much more closely to develop the overall performance, especially since they would both be appearing onscreen. So it wouldn't come off nearly so shady as the studio deciding well after the fact that the performance needs punching up.

Except we have no idea what direction they are going in. Keep in mind Chris Yost is not the first writer for this film. In its current iteration, this film has had dozens of writers and different re-writes. None of them have come up with anything the studio thought was ready to green light and put in front of the cameras.

 

[Jordacar]

Except we have no idea what direction they are going in. Keep in mind Chris Yost is not the first writer for this film. In its current iteration, this film has had dozens of writers and different re-writes. None of them have come up with anything the studio thought was ready to green light and put in front of the cameras.

And I'm sure what we're talking about here is one of the biggest reasons why this production can't seem to find its groove. Even the main character is not easily realized.

 

[DawnWarrior]

And in this case it wouldn't be about "we have to do it this way because we're not confident in this person's acting abilities." It's more about "this is the best way to tell this particular story."
Another example is when Armie Hammer and Josh Pence worked together to play the Winklevoss twins in 'The Social Network' and they CGI's Hammer's face on.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm still at a loss as why the Justin Marks script got as much buzz as it did about 7 years ago. It was NOT a good script at all.

 

[TheVileOne]

And in this case it wouldn't be about "we have to do it this way because we're not confident in this person's acting abilities." It's more about "this is the best way to tell this particular story."
Another example is when Armie Hammer and Josh Pence worked together to play the Winklevoss twins in 'The Social Network' and they CGI's Hammer's face on.

Twins were not the leads of that story though. It was Jesse Eisenberg.

 

[Jordacar]

I'm still at a loss as why the Justin Marks script got as much buzz as it did about 7 years ago. It was NOT a good script at all.

Were there other He-Man scripts that had been considered before that? Maybe that was the first time in a long time that a major studio had begun considering this property again. Still couldn't tell you what it was in Marks' script that got the execs so excited.

Twins were not the leads of that story though. It was Jesse Eisenberg.

True, but they were still a crucial component to the story. All of the twins' scenes would've been hugely distracting if they didn't make you forget that you weren't watching actual twins.

 

[TheVileOne]

Were there other He-Man scripts that had been considered before that? Maybe that was the first time in a long time that a major studio had begun considering this property again. Still couldn't tell you what it was in Marks' script that got the execs so excited.True, but they were still a crucial component to the story. All of the twins' scenes would've been hugely distracting if they didn't make you forget that you weren't watching actual twins.

I think at the time, a lot of geek culture was starting to become really more mainstream. Marks name was getting attached to some big projects, so he was writing these scripts, but none of them were getting produced except Chun-Li.

His He-Man script did leak, but I mean...it was a bad script.

There were other scripts before his. Adam Rifkin did a commissioned script beforehand. This is when it was still at Warner Bros., and Joel Silver was the producer.

Here are the main beats of Adam Rifkin's script:

- Adam is not a prince but a kitchen boy. He is actually the unknown half-brother of the current prince who gets killed like in the first act. I don't remember all the details, but I recall that his parentage was kept a secret to protect him.

- Adam gets possession of the Sword of Grayskull, and it gradually makes him bigger and muscular over the course of the script.

- Teela is like the young castle guard. She's attracted to the prince...who dies early. She bickers with Adam and doesn't like him at first.

- Skeletor is Adam's uncle here. Exiled from Eternia for his interest in the arcane arts. I recall he gets his powers after making contact with Hordak through his magical experiments. Makes a deal with Hordak and becomes Skeletor.

- Orko is in it, and really the best part of the script. Orko is pretty much Orko. So respect to Rifkin for actually attempting Orko at least and showing how it can work.

- Here's the basic narrative. Skeletor and the Evil Warriors attack Eternia. Prince is killed. Randor is kidnapped. Adam's adopted chef father is taken prisoner. Orko, Adam, Teela and Man-At-Arms run away to regroup. Man-At-Arms trains the reluctant Adam on how to become He-Man and to use the sword while they are being pursued by Skeletor's minions. Eventually, Adam fully becomes He-Man and defeats Skeletor at the end. He takes over as the real prince of Eternia.

What doesn't work for me is the weird quasi-love triangle for Teela, Adam and the prince. Also, Adam as peasant kitchen boy while a decoy prince is in power...who is related to Adam and dies. Like...no one cares about this prince and that he's dead! There's no sense of loss that the prince died.

Skeletor was OK, and Orko worked there's that. The narrative wasn't great, but it was at least slightly more refined than the Marks' script, which had a lot of random scenes, characters attempting at being really Lord of the Rings-esque epic but failing in doing so.

 

[Jordacar]

Orko, huh? Even I've had trouble getting him into my outline.

Sometimes I feel like they keep over thinking the whole Adam/He-Man dynamic. Then I look at all the back-and-forth we just covered and...well, there ya go.

 

[Octoberist]

We won't have a He-Man movie until we have a Jetsons and Gilligan's Island.

 

[TheVileOne]

Orko, huh? Even I've had trouble getting him into my outline.

Sometimes I feel like they keep over thinking the whole Adam/He-Man dynamic. Then I look at all the back-and-forth we just covered and...well, there ya go.

Most Hollywood writers don't understand how to do Orko.

I think if you can do a talking raccoon that loves weapons and tech, you can do Orko.

 

[Thundarr]

Most Hollywood writers don't understand how to do Orko.

I think if you can do a talking raccoon that loves weapons and tech, you can do Orko.

That's a very good point.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I think if you can do a talking raccoon that loves weapons and tech, you can do Orko.

That's no way to talk about Ben Whishaw!

 

[terry78]

It's funny because he resembles a rodent.

 

[Airwings]

Orko has to be properly written. Give him more layers than just being an incompetent, childish wizard. It can't be that hard.
If the tone of this film is mature and dramatic, the characters can't be like in the old Filmation show. I dislike how dim-witted some of them were.

And the He-Man transformation really needs to be in the film. I can't understand how people can call themself "fans" if they don't want to see "I HAVE THE POWER!"

 

[terry78]

Orko has always had layers. In Trolla his magic works fine, but in this dimension it's the opposite. He's actiually a masterful sorceror. He needs to be less Jar Jar and more....not quite Gollum, but in that realm of where he has comedic moments but is not a goofball. Gollum acted goofy as **** but he was a force to be reckoned with at times.