The long-gestating Masters of the Universe movie appears to have been languishing in development hell for what feels like an eternity, or should that be Eternia? However, storms might be starting to gather above Castle Grayskull with the news that Bumblebee director Travis Knight is in talks to helm the film.
According to Deadline Knight is in final negotiations to direct, and while nothing has been confirmed, the Kubo and the Two Strings filmmaker and President and CEO of Laika Animation Studios is top of Amazon MGM Studios wish list.
A project constantly in a state of flux, the script for Masters of the Universe is set to be re-written by Chris Butler (Missing Link), from an initial draft scripted by David Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Aaron & Adam Nee (The Lost City).
That version was written while Masters of the Universe was still a Netflix film, with the streamers ploughing $30 million in pre-production development before they decided to scrap the project due to a reported budget of almost $200 million.
Masters of the Universe tells the story of the orphan Adam, who comes to discover he’s a prince destined to save a faraway land from the threat of an evil wizard named Skeletor. Originating as a toy line from Mattel in 1982, Masters of the Universe quickly became popular and spawned the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe followed by She-Ra: Princess of Power. A live-action film was made in 1987 which starred Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella as He-Man and Skeletor respectively, and though it bombed at the box-office, it has since earned a cult following among He-Man fans.
SEE ALSO: Cannon Films and the Masters of the Universe
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