Predators Scripters Move Onto Masters Of The Universe

Mattel toy range set for the big screen again. And it can’t be any worse than last time…

By the power of Greyskull. Columbia has hired Predators scribes Mike Finch and Alex Litvak to write the screenplay for the in-development big screen version of Masters Of The Universe , according to The Hollywood Reporter ’s Heat Vision Blog .

But this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be seeing He-Man, Battlecat, Skeletor and Man-At-Arms in 3D (as it would no doubt be) at your local fleapit any time soon. According to the report, “The addition of the rising writers is the first major move on the property and signals the project is being rebuilt from the ground up. While at Warners, Masters went through several writers and in latter stages had John Stevenson, who co-helmed Kung Fu Panda , attached to direct. Getting the go-ahead to tackle any major toy-brand film can be tricky. Depending on the property, writers and directors need to get a thumbs-up from the studio, which then has to win approval from the toy company. In the case of Masters , Mattel has story approval.”

Then again, how hard could it be to get approval from Mattel, the company that presumably said yes to the script of the 1987 movie version of Masters Of The Universe . One of cinema’s all-time turkeys, it starred Dolph Lundgren as He-Man, Frank Langella as Skeletor and Courtney Cox as Julie Winston. Julie who ? That doesn’t sound much like an Eternian name. Well, no, because in one of those dire Hollywood cost-cutting decisions, He-Man and co were transported through dimensions to contemporary America, and spent their time battling in parks in school gyms. Let’s hope Finch and Litvak keep the action in Eternia this time.

Special bonus non-points if you can name all the characters above from left to right without Googling and Wiki-ing. Not that we can stop you, but the only person you’ll be letting down is yourself.