John Stevenson tackles HE-MAN and SKELETOR… SHE-RA snubbed?
Ah, He-Man. I have fond memories of that guy. I had many of the toys and never missed an episode of the cartoon after school. I even remember the mother of one of my friends clipped the rams-head off of the staff of his Skeletor action-figure because she thought it was satanic. Sigh… good times.
In 1987, we got the “Masters of the Universe” live-action movie starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man, Academy Award Nominee Frank Langella as Skeletor, Courtney Cox as Courtney Cox and that “Eat lead, Slacker!” guy from “Back to the Future.” It was a weird film that introduced new non-existent characters from the toys/cartoons and had Skeletor invading Earth, but I came to love it for it’s 80’s cheesiness.
Now, “Kung Fu Panda” director John Stevenson has signed on with Warner Bros. to direct a new live-action version of “Masters of the Universe.” This will mark Stevenson’s first live-action directing job as he resurrects the property for a new generation.
My question is… WHY? Looking back, the source material really doesn’t hold up very well today. I can’t think of a single way to make He-Man cool for the 2010’s. I hope Stevenson has a few tricks up his sleeve to update the property in such a way that it doesn’t wreck the original concept, yet makes it palatable for a hard-to-impress modern audience. After all, the cartoon was originally a half-hour commercial to sell the Mattel toy line of He-Man action figures (collect them all!). Don’t get me wrong. I’m rooting for Stevenson. He’s done bang-up jobs with the animated films he’s worked on. I even met the guy at the “Kung Fu Panda” premiere after party and he seemed like an amiable dude. I do want to send him a sincere “good luck” message as he’s got a heck of a challenge in store for him.
No word on whether She-Ra will appear in the remake (sorry, girls).
Here’s a clip from the original cartoon…
And a trailer for the 1987 live-action film…
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YES Here’s hoping this guy can do something with this property. I too have trouble seeing the relevancy in any way these days. Do they really hope to make money with this?
No She-Ra???? Seriously? They are risking a lot by making this movie in the first place. You take She-Ra out and why do the girls care? She was the only action figure I owned as a kid (I wasn’t into Wonder Woman). In fact, She-Ra may be the reason I got my black belt.
What do you think?i think that they should make a live action movie of she-ra they all ready made a movie of masters of the universe all ready.
I agree with Adora. They already created a He-Man movie back in the 80’s, not to mention He-Man had THREE cartoon series. All of us She-Ra fans had to make do with the original series, no later series and definitely no movie. I think a She-Ra movie would be FAR more interesting than He-Man. He’s had his chance. It’s She-Ra’s turn!
I would prefer she-ra as well….why should he-man have all the credit? I used to watch them both but always preferred she-ra