Many fans of ’80s-era cartoons have buried the disaster that was 1987’s Masters of The Universe deep in the dark recesses of their minds. Aside from a few promising casting decisions – Dolph Lundgren as “He-Man” and Frank Langella as “Skeletor” – and a first glimpse at burgeoning starlet Courtney Cox, the film had little to offer and, fittingly, was demolished by critics and audiences alike. Action figure sales were probably through-the-roof, but bombs are bombs; there is no way around it. And Masters of the Universe is usually labeled, even by those that are holding their tongues, as the Manhattan Project of cinema.
But, good news is now at hand: Columbia Pictures Senior Vice President DeVon Franklin just tweeted a photo of a recently finished draft of the new Masters of the Universe script, which has been in the studio pipeline for years. Jeff Wadlow, director of the moderately well-received Kick-Ass 2, wrote the screenplay and will also be tapped to direct the picture. Let’s just hope that this update of the much-beloved cartoon will produce more than a future sitcom star and an opportunity for a B-movie action hero to prance around with his shirt off.