I just got in a little while ago from the Cine-Space event I co-hosted tonight, where we showed TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE on the bigscreen. No, not the Michael Bay film (although producer Tom DeSanto was cool enough to bring the new trailer down to share with everyone), but the ‘80s cartoon feature. And although there were big chunks of the movie that went by where I literally couldn’t explain to you what anyone was saying or doing, it seemed like it played well to the audience who were there because they have genuine love for the material. I talked with several fans before and after the event, and I admire the passion they feel for the material. Flint Dille was one of the guests tonight, and he talked about how amazed he was at the longevity of the fanbase. When writing the series, he never expected that it would still be watched and discussed 20 years later.

Right now, though, we’re seeing a revival of all the things that were important to ‘80s kids, and for a while now, we’ve been hearing rumors that HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE would be one of the properties getting the big-budget treatment. Remember when John Woo was supposedly doing it? Since then, I’ve seen Adam Rifkin’s name attached to it for a while, and IMDb hilariously had M. Night Shyamalan listed as the writer for a brief period.

However, I can tell you today exclusively who IS writing the film: Justin Marks.

If you don’t recognize the name, you will soon. Justin’s the guy who is writing SUPERMAX, the Green Arrow in prison movie that David Goyer is producing for Warner/DC. He’s also writing bigscreen versions of VOLTRON and STREET FIGHTER. So basically, Justin Marks is the most gainfully employed professional fanboy on the planet right now.

Joel Silver’s going to be producing HE-MAN as soon as Marks finds time to write it, and Warner Bros. is going to be releasing the film if it makes it through the development process. I can’t wait to see what kind of heated talkback debates this announcement creates, so get to it!

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles