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Fall Of The House Of GRAYSKULL! He-Man Movie Deep-Sixed By WB!
Beaks here...
Though I'm not exactly delighting in Joel Silver's current troubles at Warner Brothers, I'm not exactly heartbroken to learn that GRAYSKULL, Justin Marks's reinvention of the "Masters of the Universe", er, universe, is dead. According to Latino Review's El Mayimbe, the project fell apart when Silver Pictures exec Navid McIlhargey bolted for a Senior VP post at New Regency. It also didn't help that all of the A-list directors approved of by WB (including Bryan Singer and Doug Liman) turned the film down.
You can read El Mayimbe's report here. And his script review (which I couldn't disagree with more) here.
This is a real shame for Marks. He was working with some of the best source material of his career...
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It's garbage.
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who was going to play She Ra
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If they're not going to do it right, don't do it at all. Once GIJoe makes a ton of cash He-Man will be back.
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And that is really saying something about this property.
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cancel it first and then kill it.
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There were probably some scheduling conflicts.
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...vying for the power of Grayskull, would you really strap yourself into that lumbering Battle Bones carrying case side by side with your enemies to go from place to place?
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Oct 16, 2008 7:22:02 PM CDT
"He was working with some of the best source material of his car
by troutmaskreplicant
Haha, that's not a compliment. I like it.
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Being the absolutely huge He-Man fan that I am, I've always hoped for another film to be made one day. But despite my great desire to see the adventures of He-Man, Teela, Battle-Cat, Man-At-Arms, Skeletor, and maybe even Orko play out on the big screen again (or for the first time for some of those characters), I never really got my hopes up to high for any of these modern projects.
There was the John Woo attempt, back when the new version of the cartoon series was on TV, and that of course died. But then I heard about this Marks guy getting the job and then he actually got so far as to write a fucking script! One step closer to reality, but still a long way off. So anyways, I'm sad to hear this, but not altogether surprised. -
awesome!
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In fact Uwe Boll was one of the "up and coming directors that were gung ho on the script, but the studio wasn’t feeling them." No, not really, but I wouldn't be surprised. "He-Man? I will do your He-Man movie, yah. I will make it sword and sorcery with my own spezzial touch." Yeah, Silver actually deserves some bad karma anyway. Perhaps some other needful studio will pick up this project...or perhaps not...really, my life will not rise or fall based on whether another feature film based on "He-Man" is made. Just say it three times and you'll be blessed with "The Power of Gray..." ah...Orko where are you?
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Makes me think it's a good thing it didn't get made and makes me hope it never gets made. Nothing wrong with Singer but I dont think he should do big budget action fantasy and Liman just plain sucks. Jumper was ridiculously awful. And I would rather never see a MOU film (sigh) than I would see another Transformers.
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very expensive.
After, SpeedRacer, WB is thinking with caution about other Kid-Oriented Cartoons, unless it is a sure thing like Batman. -
That could still happen. Right?
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I'd be into it. Make it like Conan the Barbarian was back in the 80s. Tits, blood, perversion, and gore. Give me a scene of He-Man fucking Evil-Lynn where he satisfies her and then throws her into a fire. Give me a scene where Man-At-Arms decapitates Beast-Man and then gives his daughter Teela 's tits a grope while they're celebrating their victory. Give me a scene where Orko shoots a lightning bolt up Ram-Man's ass.
Make it exploitive and over-the-top, and it will be a hit. -
You've gotta be kidding me. Who cares about this stupid franchise and even more stupid idea. The fact that this even was offered to any real director is laughable. I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just saying it's ridiculous. He Man belongs in every 30 something's closet in a shoe box, missing his weapons and accesories, where he BELONGS. Come up with SOMETHING NEW for the love of God!!!!!!!
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That would work.
Or- ust make it so bad it was entertaining- but sell it seriously- a s aserious piece of "cinema" but so freaking bad that people just laugh at it. Taht would sell tickets. And nto liek snakes on a plane- where they thought it was cool to be cheesy- its never cool to be cheesy- I mean just full on crap, put up and a masterpiece- and see if it sells.
Social experiment. -
fuck you WB, make this movie already assholes
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One less adaptation to hit the theaters, and a bad one at that. Some things should just remain as novels, comic books, cartoons, other TV shows, and video games.
And this is coming from someone with a soft spot for He-Man. Hell, one of my distant cousins was one of the animators. I had the pleasure of watching him draw He-Man and Orco. -
I mean, really, He-Man? Does anyone still care about that homoerotic cartoon in which the main hero was IDENTICAL to his secret identity and no one noticed?
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Oh, yes, he will. This project will return and you will hear the words "Brett Rattner's Masters of the Universe" by 2015.
By the way, there was a nice story about the slimebag over at CHUD, by the way - about him being a pathetic asshole in a video rental and then getting told "ah, the good version of Red Dragon?" when he ordered them to bring him a copy of "Manhunter"...
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THE LIVE ACTION MY LITTLE PONY FLICK!!! SUMMER 2010!!
OR RAINBOW BRIGHT 2009!!
FUCKING LET THE 80'S GO. -
I really wanted to see Skeletor's chestplate spin to show battle damage after getting hit by HeMan.
oh well, that now gives them time and money to make the hotly anticipated live action adaptation of Sectaurs! -
BY THE POWER OF....NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
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Marks has gotten farther than you ever would've. Why are your posts so uniformly snarky and self impressed?
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Joel Silver needs to leave Hollywood and go far, far away from it and never come back. Ever. Again. I'm tired of this dubass.
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It probably would've ended up being bad anyway.
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On second thought forget it. He's getting enough work as it is according to imdb.
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I mean as much as I give out about revamped adaptations and basically remakes it would have been cool to see a proper SENSIBLE non campy version of He man done....I mean the source material is nowhere near as good as Lord of the Rings say, but with a good script writer, solid cast and good imaginative director,there is potential for a great fantasy epic there...seriously, if treated right a Masters Of The Universe film could be great. I mean it might require some drastic changes to original material, but still the potential is there to be moulded.BUT Ill say this for the original flick-Langellas Skeletor ruled. Seriously. He was a fooking FANTASTIC villain for a kids flick, cos he was genuinely sinister, angry and threatening-I mean the guy ALMOST wins in it. And Langella plays if him perfectly..I do say, bring him back to voice a CG Skeletor! rest of the film is pretty meh though...
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WB strikes again, it almost seems like This would be a 20th Century Fox move.
^to poster above "faggy LOTR?" I now know you support a big barrel chested Queen with a pink Shirt and vest named Prince Adam.^ -
i read the review and immediately wanted to see this on the screen. i could see this being a masterpiece. that's the greatest invention of he-man that he lives in a fantastic universe where magic, sorcery and high-technology co-exist. damn. i really hope someone else picks this up...
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This would be a hard movie to make right, but still, it would probably be so much fun! I still have ALL my old toys, even Eternia, and the fantasy storylines that could be done from this could set up quite a franchise. That Battle Bones sucked, though. Not like, Mosquitor sucked, more like, Ram Man sucked. No wait, I kinda liked him, too...
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Fuck! I really wanted to see this, too. The script that was posted here was awesome. He-man deserved a badass movie like this. That stinks.
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And again, if WB's management are being idiots as of now, it's DEFINITELY not the right time.
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Now go call Frank Langella...
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I'm not sure this material would translate well to the big screen. Would probably just come off campy Maybe if they deviate from the source material a bit...
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...but I would. C'mon, I need the money.
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It would be really something to behold. So would a Mo-Cap THUNDERCATS done by Peter Jackson.
We can dream. -
Oct 17, 2008 12:01:42 AM CDT
I'll show you who all should be in charge of the He Man Movie!!!
by red43jes
Oh, you ALL know these guys! Make it happen!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ1u2_PopPk&feature=related -
What is your problem Warners?
You approve a turd like Speed Racer. Like who cares about Speed Racer.
And you nix this?
Ask Peter Jackson who he would suggest for it. How about Guy Ritchie?
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to see that some things don't belong in the theaters. I kinda enjoyed the Cartoon Network remake a few years back; I don't know why they canceled it so soon. Although, if these people insist on messing with 80's cartoons, why can't someone make a Dungeons & Dragons movie that continued where the cartoon left off. I'd be all for that.
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Could you please elaborate a bit more on why you "couldn't disagree more" with El Mayimbe's take on the script? I mean beyond simply that you disagree with his opinion. He was pretty gungfuckingho about it, and based on what he wrote I certainly got excited at the prospect of that script coming to life. To now hear you say you strongly disagree makes me want to know more, because if it did actually blow goats then that would make me feel better about the project dying. Thanks man!
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Oct 17, 2008 12:33:44 AM CDT
"He-Man" is a stupid title and a dumber name.
by stereotypical evil archer
"Masters of the Universe" isn't as bad, but still a little silly when you think about it "Grayskull" sounds awesome! It could be all post-Dark Knight and stuff.Well made Fantasy movies bring in the dough, well made superhero movies bring in the dough. That's two possible doughs!
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He might have fanboy cred, but the guy's "reinventions" are decidedly sub-par.
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Weirdly, I can't seem to think of a single director who could approach a source this campy with the level of earnestness the script seems written for. Maybe Timur Bekmambetov if he could lay off the amphetamines in the editing room? I wasn't a huge fan of his stuff, but "Wanted" and his "Watch" films demonstrate he can turn complete silliness into a surprisingly credible and even compelling universe. If the script is good as el mayibe says (and Beaks doesn't think so, apparently, though as usual no elaboration whatsoever) it could be a great opportunity for the guy. It's kind of a shame that it seems like the world of film making is now entirely dominated by either high-class-big-budget auteurs or shameless studio drones and hacks. Seems like in the 70s and 80s, there were tons of real solid low-profile directors who would accept projects like this, treat them seriously, and move on to other things. They weren't ashamed to have things like a "Conan the Destroyer" or "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" remake in their resumes; they just did solid, serious work on whatever work there was at the time. Which means, studios were happy and occasionally silly scripts or goofy ideas were treated with respect and became some of today's classic below-the-radar fun flicks.
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The last thing I wanted was a dark and brooding 300-ish He-Man movie.
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Speed Racer was great, one of the best movies of the summer. Stop using it as a benchmark for mediocrity.
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That cage is made with magic!
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Seriously - what kind of self-adulating a-hole in his commentary for his decidedly mediocre film (anyone who defends Christensen's ability to act at this point needs to have their orbital socket shattered), proudly announces that he went into the film with the express intention of reinventing a genre, and one as (currently) overpopulated as the funnybook oeuvre. Mr Liman - you failed and failed miserably. It occurs to me : the difference between today and early 80s filmmaking is the genre movies have become the tentpole movies and the former tentpoles are now jammed into the arthouse ghetto - the Sony Picture Classics - Fox Searchlight niche. He-Man, even at the height of his popularity (and as everyone knows was simply a pg version of Conan to begin with) would have been a low to low-medium budgeted movie in the early 80s. Do you think Joel Silver was looking to make He-Man on a 40 mil or lower budget? I don't...
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He Man was too gay (litterly)for my tastes even as a kid.Then again, the upcoming GIJoe Movie looks like shit.
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not Conan.
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This is what happens when you try and fuck with the Donner.
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Release a such a comprehensive script summary of an unmade movie to the public? It was completely idiotic that anyone thought Marks' script was going to see light of day.
Even if WB had kept a reign on 'leaks'like this, the would never have had the temerity to actually commit to a project where there is NO WAY OF UNGAYIFYING THE NAMES OF THE TWO CENTRAL CHARACTERS. -
Oct 17, 2008 4:15:22 AM CDT
meh - they obviously didn't offer it to Uwe Boll
by the power of greyskull
I'm sure he's still looking for work... for that matter, so's Dolph Lundgren probably
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A good one. On Eternia and not fucking earth!
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I may need to brush up on my irony skills as this seems to be the weapon of choice on this site.
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I'd bitchslap any of you who are fans of this tripe.
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Its too bad. Some other studio should get this, give it a really small budget (like 60-70 million)and cast it with grade B actors. If you keep throwing shit at a target, sometimes you get lucky.
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Oct 17, 2008 8:58:42 AM CDT
Yes it`s a sad day for grown men who watch cartoons the world ov
by elgyn6655321
Somewhere in Springfield, Comic-Book Guy`s hopes for a kick-ass He-Man movie have been shattered.
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I had a bad feeling about this Marks script. He-Man always had some campiness! C'mon...no Orko? Skeletor was a badass but his minions are definitely not! I'm hoping for a real MOTU movie that retains some sort of camp factor. It can be done right.That being said, I still think the original MOTU movie is better than Bay-Formers! If only for Langella as Skeletor! I prefer my villians to have more than 10 words of dialogue and 8 minutes of screen time.
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the Wonder Woman movie that WB was supposed to make?
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Yeah, that's kind of what I mean. In some ways, I think genre pics were BETTER served by being b-movies the studios weren't all that concerned about. When there's a huge budget on the line, studios want the Ratners and Wisemans of the world. They want strict control, and people who know how to craft a product. With something like "Beastmaster" the studio just let Corscarelli do his thing... and why not, it's audience will find it and no one else will care. That's how folks like Philip Kaufman, Richard Fliecher, etc. got a couple fantasy or sci-fi greats over the years. Hitchcock is the ultimate example of this; a great director who approached his projects like products that he would work on seriously and to the best of his ability, but also wasn't going to fight the studio to the gates of Hell over (even when he did disagree with them, for instance over the score to Torn Curtain). A film was a job for him, and he did a good job on each product but also placated his funders. And hey -- he actually got movies made!
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Ahhhhh the memories...!
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Dolph Lungren will cameo as a security guard....
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and lots of man-thigh.
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And I brush my teeth with regularity. Once in the morning and once at bedtime, and in between meals so my teeth will shine!
You can say this if you rehearse, then you'll be like the Masters of the Universe!"
Sorry, my nephews had the He-Man talking electric toothbrush set.
Heard that poem a 1000 times one weekend. It's been stuck in there ever since. -
Nope, that's probably THE DARK KNIGHT *heh heh*
But seriously, either Ratner, a Wchowksi of some description or a Zack Snyder could do this justice. But really- it should be John Milius. I mean, he's into this uber-man stuff isn't he? And the lead character is called fucking HE-MAN, isn't he? A match made in heaven.
John Milius to make MOTU! MAKE IT SOOOOO! -
I don't like egg sandwiches
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... that was my wife!
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If you think about it, this is exactly how LOTR was created. In that vein of under the radar, nobody really knew what hit them until they walked out of the theater, relatively low-budget and spread the risk by leveraging overseas pre-sales and merchandising licensees. The complete opposite would be something like Superman Returns, where so much money was being spent and so much hype and history surrounded it, that I'm sure they were getting notes on EVERYTHING from every executive and toy manufacturer who had even the smallest stake in its success. Even today, when you look at the circumstances on how LOTR was made, it really was way under the radar and the effects were practically improvised. Of course, Return went on to sweep the Oscars, but I think a case can be made for the way Fellowship was made (still the best one, imho) and released that should allow other comparable movies to be made under similar circumstances for low budgets by people with a vision and the ability to pull artists together who may have not had a chance to work on a movie otherwise. If the studio REALLY felt they were shouldering too much risk, they would have demanded that ILM be doing the effects and they would have had lawyers and line producers all over that set. All this isn't to say that it should be done in the service of a He-Man movie, but I think it does point out a recent example of something that probably WAS done more in the vein of an 80's fantasy/sci-fi movie, where entire conglomerates didn't have their nose in the production's business the whole time and various effects people got to ply their trade and make things cheap but effective. And one more supremely important ingredient that I've noticed is a director who has an idea of how THEY want the effects done. This is as true of Peter Jackson on LOTR as it was of Ridley Scott on Alien and Blade Runner. I think Nolan is the same way on his films, knowing and working out ahead of time how certain things should be done, rather than just deferring everything to CGI and effects artists supervisors. This often leads to a more 'completeness' of the effects, if that makes any sense, where many different avenues are pursued to make up the whole, many of which are often very cheap but also very effective.
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True true. Still, I think there is something to be said for the practice of NOT hiring auteurs for fantasy stuff. When the auteurs know what they want and can work in a free environment, you do get something like LOTR. But a good percentage of the time, their passion and commitment to getting it "Exactly as they envisioned" actually ends up sinking projects like this because its too costly and they end up with the suits running the show. The great thing about a lot of 70s/80s fantasy cinema was that it was made by non-genre directors who were consumate professionals -- guys who did great work on whatever work they got, but weren't going to turn films into personal crusades over vision. I mentioned a few in my previous post. I'm glad we have gusy like Gilliam, who will always put vision first. But I wish there were a few more pro filmmakers who had the kind of workaday attitude the great 70s/80s guys did. Today, this sort of pro filmmaker seems to have been replaced by toadying hacks of the Ratner/Wiseman vein. Its been broken into two camps: guys who do it strictly for the love, and guys who do it strictly for the money. In the past, it seems like there were more folks who embodied the middle ground and could make serious, quality films even if they weren't salivating fanboys.
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