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Director Jon M. Chu Talks About 'Masters Of The Universe'


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What script is he talking about? I thought it was being rewritten?

i heard the same thing, that it's being rewritten that is.

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Well hopefully playing around with the characters doesn't result in a repeat of the '87 Masters of the Universe film that took place on earth, or the lobotomy that Bay attempted to put on the monster that was almost Teenage Mutant Alien Turtles. *shudder*

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  • 6 months later...

I have zero faith that this will be handled with care. It's just going to be another director totally destroying another property. Just like Michael Bay with Transformers and Nolan with the Batman movies. So far, the only thing done right in recent years has been the Avengers movie along with the solo movies of each hero.

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since it is so quite about the motu movie, i doubt chu will do it. the response of gijoe was good but not perfect. they should get someone with experience in the genre and not just a new hollywood director who had one blockbuster in his pocket. taking chu as a director just shows what mattel wants with the franchise. a cheesy summer blockbuster movie killed by a lot of jokes and action. with an actor who looks like he just won a beauty contest and has two different faces he can actually portray for the character a la john carter. no way will they go the epic route in doubt that motu can pull it off.

 

 

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It would be such a dream if Mattel decided to make a more epic, serious movie. Treat the property with the respect it deserves. And don't change things just to change them; believe in the material you've already established.

 

I have a feeling, if it ever gets another movie, it will be more like GI Joe than Lord of the Rings or Batman.

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It would be such a dream if Mattel decided to make a more epic, serious movie. Treat the property with the respect it deserves. And don't change things just to change them; believe in the material you've already established.

 

I have a feeling, if it ever gets another movie, it will be more like GI Joe than Lord of the Rings or Batman.

 

I certainly hope it's not like Batman. lol!

 

I would like to see a MOTU movie made with old style, traditional cinematography. Except with modern visual effects. Since the MOTU universe is a hybrid of barbarism and technology, they should take an elegant Mad Max approach. The property is very lucrative and there are SO many cool ways it can be made into a movie. The problem is Hollywood. They don't care about respecting the material. They're just happy making a zero plot, 95% action and explosions, big name actors only club type movie that will sell tickets. The art of making epic "Spartacus" type films is dead unfortunately. Creating a solid story and screenplay shouldn't be a problem to a seasoned, experienced group of film makers. The less graininess, washed out styling and slow down anti gravity effects the better --- make it old school. There are WAY too many people trying to reinvent properties... eh ehm... Nolan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

And don't change things just to change them; believe in the material you've already established.

 

this cant be expressed enough with hollywood and the making of movies from pop culture icons. the sad thing is that soooo many directors change things for the sake of change or just so they can say that they put their finger print on it. prime example, look at avater the last air bender. the show and material is VERY well established. there is a ton of quality data to draw from. it's a directors dream! all you have to do is "color within the lines" and you would have directed a HUGE blockbuster! in turn, that would help boost their career. yet M. Night just HAD to tweak things, things that had no need or purpose of change. and look what happened! fans were disgusted by the small plot and character changes. the changes took what was already established, what was already loved, and turned it into something substantially different.

 

when motu is made, i too hope they find a director who respects the established history and material of the franchise.

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The same can be said about Nolan's Batman films. They were completely skewed and for what, so he can express his so called artistic, sophisticated style? Sorry, WB made a HUGE mistake having him take control over Batman. I know most fans love his version of the films, and to this day I still can't figure out why? I get that people have different tastes but c'mon. IMO Tim Burton's vision is the best we have so far. The movie could have been better, but the overall vision is pretty spot on. Now Nolan's Superman story and Zack Snyder's stylistic filming are going to destroy yet another iconic property. Hollywood is to blame I guess, IDK. It's a good bet that the same treatment will be given to MOTU. Today's filmmakers simply lack the ability to stay true and respect the property, so the chances of MOTU being what it should be are slim to none. Look what happened to GIJOE and Transformers --- Completely mishandled.

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The same can be said about Nolan's Batman films. They were completely skewed and for what, so he can express his so called artistic, sophisticated style? Sorry, WB made a HUGE mistake having him take control over Batman. I know most fans love his version of the films, and to this day I still can't figure out why? I get that people have different tastes but c'mon. IMO Tim Burton's vision is the best we have so far. The movie could have been better, but the overall vision is pretty spot on. Now Nolan's Superman story and Zack Snyder's stylistic filming are going to destroy yet another iconic property. Hollywood is to blame I guess, IDK. It's a good bet that the same treatment will be given to MOTU.

 

To be fair, I believe Nolan started off pretty solid in his adaptation of Batman particularly with Begins. Unfortunately as the series progressed and by the third installment

Nolan seemed to have forgotten what he was adapting. IMO Nolan became to preoccupied with grounding the character in his own particular style that he stripped

away what makes Batman. Batman. I understand and can accept when directors and/or writers take certain liberties when adapting something from one medium to the next,

but Nolan took one to many IMO and it was seen in TDKR. As for Superman, I'm not going to presume anything regarding Snyder's take on Superman until

I see it, however judging by the trailers its shaping up to be a pretty solid modern take on the property.

 

Today's filmmakers simply lack the ability to stay true and respect the property, so the chances of MOTU being what it should be are slim to none. Look what happened to GIJOE and Transformers --- Completely mishandled.

 

Agreed.

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To be fair, I believe Nolan started off pretty solid in his adaptation of Batman particularly with Begins. Unfortunately as the series progressed and by the third installment

Nolan seemed to have forgotten what he was adapting. IMO Nolan became to preoccupied with grounding the character in his own particular style that he stripped

away what makes Batman. Batman. I understand and can accept when directors and/or writers take certain liberties when adapting something from one medium to the next,

but Nolan took one to many IMO and it was seen in TDKR. As for Superman, I'm not going to presume anything regarding Snyder's take on Superman until

I see it, however judging by the trailers its shaping up to be a pretty solid modern take on the property.

 

 

I agree, Begins was on the right track, And I actually like that one. The others were sheer garbage. Problem with Snyder, is he's all about graphic novels. He doesn't know how to capture a superhero on the big screen unless they were a dark representation from a graphic novel. Most GNs seem to deviate from the traditional vision and sometimes canon of the character(s). Nolan and Snyder combined, with their, "make it look more real" approach will take away from this up coming Superman flick. Already we see that it's going to be a "Smallville" movie with a new 52 style Superman, which suggests that they are basing the movie on ALL recent media. That alone tells me that it's going down the wrong path. Since Nolan and Goyer have zero talent as writers, I have little faith that this movie will have a strong plot with minimal holes. Since Nolan cant resist purposely making movies that make you walk out of the theater scratching your head because the plot has so many holes, I'm betting that this Superman film, which AGAIN has a title without the word, "Superman" --- just like The Dark Knight... will be an epic fail. Too many negatives surrounding the movie for me to think it will be any good. Sad thing is, it will do SO well because fanboys eat this stuff up... this will probably be a trilogy.

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Man of steel looks awesome to me but i just saw 2minutes of it. To me these characters need a fresh take. Specially superman. He was really well represented by christopher reeves. Of course there was a time where hollywood lost to see what a superhero movie is all about. In the 80's and 90's comic stories werent taken seriously wich is weird because the first superman was out since 1977 and burton did the best batman (for me) ever. Superman has a huge legacy with the last 3 movies who werent what one hoped to see. Snyder is one of my favorite directors and hans zimmer will touch more then one with his amazing score. We will see what happens but man of steel is my most anticipated movie right now.

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Batman has been interpreted and reinterpreted so many times that I'm not sure how you can say Nolan took liberties with the character. Batman has been around since the 1930s, and he's been everything you can think of during that 80+ years. Maybe Nolan didn't make the Batman you wanted, but that doesn't make him wrong. And Tim Burton made the Joker the murderer of Bruce Wayen's parents, for cryin' out loud! Talk about unnecessary Hollywood-style changes! ;)

 

That said, I've liked all the Batman movies (even Batman and Robin) because Batman can be portrayed in many different lights. They all have their place. The same goes for Superman.

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Like I said, Begins was good. It was definitely going in the right direction. Even Zimmer's score was nice, and I don't care for his work. But TDK and TDKR were seriously off beat from the first movie. I like Nolan's Batman character, but the environments and situations Nolan put him in were wrong. My beef with Nolan for the most part is he tries too hard to make the movies his own instead of paying NECESSARY homage to the basic elements. Snyder I don't like because he's the typical modern day director that likes to add stylistic elements that ALL movies seem to have today like slow motion effects, grainy, washed out styling. It's getting old. Tim Burton's Batman had the right tone but yeah, the story could have been and origin and more true to the comics. The Joker could have had a different arc and been introduced in a sequel. On the other hand, as much as I like Burton, I thought Batman Returns was stupid, but it did retain the same tone as the 1989 film. In the end, most people who go see Man of Steel are going to love it no matter what because it's a Superman movie... same reason why people love the Dark Knight Rises, which was the worst movie since Ishtar.

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"Treat the property with the respect it deserves."

 

LAWL.

 

That's exactly what they're probably going to do. Like most 80's franchises, the franchise that exists in the minds of some adult fans never existed, and never will (He Man has never been any sort of "adult"/mature property when it's had any sort of mainstream success). The best you'll be able to hope for is something that draws heavily from the 200X series. He-Man ain't been a big moneymaker in the last 10 years or so, so from a business perspective, that justifies just about any changes they want to make, as the "old" product is stagnant outside of a marginal, low-production, direct-sales toy line, and the faithful audience that buys that stuff probably isn't even large enough to buy enough tickets to even fund the trailers for the film, much less the full film itself. The franchise is in even worse shape than G.I. Joe was before its' last two movies.

 

How easily fans forget that these are basically cartoon franchises designed to sell toys to children. This ain't Lord of the Rings, and no matter how hard anyone tries, is never going to be. Absolute best-case scenario gets us something on par with the Marvel Studios films (which I assume everyone here hates because they're not panel-for-panel direct translations of the comics).

 

Oh, and gotta love how even directors that fall smack-dab in the right age group to have been into the toys/show as a kid get "doubted" when they say they were. It's like fans forget how big these properties actually were. There's about a 99 percent chance John Chu did, in fact, play with He-Man as a kid, because He-Man would've been a huge freaking deal when he was a kid. Probably played with Transformers and G.I. Joe, too. Just like, y'know...99 percent of the other kids in America at the time.

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Mattel's main goal will be to make the movie to sell toys. That's the problem. They don't care about the quality of the movie in terms of story, longevity, etc. They just want plenty of elements that draw kids to the theatre and in return sell the toys based on that film. But I disagree that a MOTU can't be just as broad as the LOTR movies. If enough thought and care went into a MOTU movie, the possibilities are literally endless. It may be a faddish toy line that faded years ago, but it's a property that has SO much potential because the characters are there, the universe is there, etc. So many stories can be written about the MOTU universe... only it won't happen because the prime directive is not to make an epic MOTU trilogy for the sake of great story telling... its prime directive is to sell toys. Mattel will never understand that if you strengthen the property, add longevity to it, They could make more money besides what they get from the toys. Mattel is a very shortsighted company that only focuses on huge, one-time, lump sum sales (in the now) they don't consider the future possibilities or put thought into how to make a property grow. Why? Because Mattel is so used to the Barbie and Hot Wheels line selling themselves without any effort or money put into it. Mattel sees it like this... Boys love toy cars, girls love dolls... it's a no brain-er. That's how limited they are. LOL!

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"Treat the property with the respect it deserves."

 

LAWL.

 

That's exactly what they're probably going to do. Like most 80's franchises, the franchise that exists in the minds of some adult fans never existed, and never will (He Man has never been any sort of "adult"/mature property when it's had any sort of mainstream success). The best you'll be able to hope for is something that draws heavily from the 200X series. He-Man ain't been a big moneymaker in the last 10 years or so, so from a business perspective, that justifies just about any changes they want to make, as the "old" product is stagnant outside of a marginal, low-production, direct-sales toy line, and the faithful audience that buys that stuff probably isn't even large enough to buy enough tickets to even fund the trailers for the film, much less the full film itself. The franchise is in even worse shape than G.I. Joe was before its' last two movies.

 

How easily fans forget that these are basically cartoon franchises designed to sell toys to children. This ain't Lord of the Rings, and no matter how hard anyone tries, is never going to be. Absolute best-case scenario gets us something on par with the Marvel Studios films (which I assume everyone here hates because they're not panel-for-panel direct translations of the comics).

 

Oh, and gotta love how even directors that fall smack-dab in the right age group to have been into the toys/show as a kid get "doubted" when they say they were. It's like fans forget how big these properties actually were. There's about a 99 percent chance John Chu did, in fact, play with He-Man as a kid, because He-Man would've been a huge freaking deal when he was a kid. Probably played with Transformers and G.I. Joe, too. Just like, y'know...99 percent of the other kids in America at the time.

 

Always an authority on every subject, aren't we?

 

By "treat the property with the respect it deserves" I meant stay true to what made anyone like it or stand by it over the years rather than change elements for the sake of change (like turning Skeletor into He-Man's father, making Adam and Teela teenage lovers, or decking He-Man out in a black leather costume) simply because it's not as popular or accepted as some other properties.

 

Don't turn it into something it was never intended to be (He-Man is not Conan the Barbarian, for example). Simply put, make a Masters of the Universe movie rather than some other movie that uses MOTU names and characters.

 

And you can have a successful MOTU film by staying true to the property. Writing is the key to anything (film, novel, television show, newstory, blog, etc.). Write a good story, and the rest takes care of itself. I'm not saying it will be anything earth-shattering, but there are lots of examples of solid, likable, successful films based on comics, toys, or books that weren't earth-shattering, either, and yet fans really enjoyed.

 

Side note: for someone as intelligent as you clearly believe yourself to be, something like "LAWL" really undermines that line of thinking for anyone else. It's an entirely unnecessary inclusion. :)

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That's what I feel happened in Retaliation, to me it felt like an action movie that they just attached Joe and Cobra names to the characters. I don't have much faith in JMC if he's directing but time will tell.....I love cheesy pizza cheesy poofs & cheesy movies as well, I have no beef w/Lundgren's He-man it wasn't Howard the Duck & yes no Shakespear either but it tried dammit it really tried, it must've worked on some level cause its part of my childhood.....much like that awful Super Mario Movie, or the other Nintendo Advertisemen ahem Movie where the mute child travels cross country outlaw style so his friends can enter him into a Nintendo Contest and then movie ends with a Power Glove falling on top of someone, killing them? or maybe that didn't happen anewayyy.......with today's CGI I'm sure a MOTU movie would look amazing.....

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I think the 1987 movie was alright... it wasn't an abomination like some fans feel it was, but it wasn't perfect. I remember seeing it back in 1989 for the first time and thought it was pretty entertaining. I think the end result of the 1987 film was in part of the limitations of the time. Visual effects were not what they are today. If not for the limitations, there's a good bet that instead of Gwildor we would have seen a CGI Orko floating around seamlessly interacting with the rest of the cast as well as a Battle Cat, etc. Another issue is the 1987 movie was a CANNON film from the 80's... they are known for being extremely low budget. I think in a paralell 1987, MOTU would have been a better movie. Lundgren was a great choice IMO and I hope they find someone like him to play him this time around. The key is to cast ALL unknowns that suit their rolls perfectly and maybe one big name actor/actress to draw people to the theaters. Biggest challenge is finding a writer, director, and producer who can respect the property without letting the studio take too much control over the film.

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Mattel's main goal will be to make the movie to sell toys. That's the problem. They don't care about the quality of the movie in terms of story, longevity, etc. They just want plenty of elements that draw kids to the theatre and in return sell the toys based on that film. But I disagree that a MOTU can't be just as broad as the LOTR movies. If enough thought and care went into a MOTU movie, the possibilities are literally endless. It may be a faddish toy line that faded years ago, but it's a property that has SO much potential because the characters are there, the universe is there, etc. So many stories can be written about the MOTU universe... only it won't happen because the prime directive is not to make an epic MOTU trilogy for the sake of great story telling... its prime directive is to sell toys. Mattel will never understand that if you strengthen the property, add longevity to it, They could make more money besides what they get from the toys. Mattel is a very shortsighted company that only focuses on huge, one-time, lump sum sales (in the now) they don't consider the future possibilities or put thought into how to make a property grow. Why? Because Mattel is so used to the Barbie and Hot Wheels line selling themselves without any effort or money put into it. Mattel sees it like this... Boys love toy cars, girls love dolls... it's a no brain-er. That's how limited they are. LOL!

 

I think a fair argument could be made that the universe is there, but not so much the characters. The characters are basically...cartoons. Cartoons with far less history than the characters with decades upon decades of history and development that we get in franchises like Batman, Superman, Marvel, et al...

 

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe has never really been about great storytelling. It's original concepts are relatively imaginative (even if basically a fusion of Conan the Barbarian with Flash Gordon with a dash of Captain Marvel), but the characters have rarely, if ever, been particularly deep, and the storytelling (especially that with which most people are familiar with...the Filmation cartoon) is often paper-thin. By these reckonings, trying to turn MotU into a sweeping epic for the ages would arguably be changing it even more than any of the other things mentioned as concerns by the fans here!

 

I absolutely agree that it'd be quite nice if they concentrated on quality above-all. I doubt John Chu or anyone else involved is going to set out to deliberately make a bad movie, and there's even the possibility that, like Avengers, a paper-thin plot can be overcome with charismatic actors and a breezy, fun script. The problem being that the Masters of the Universe won't all have their own individual movies to set them up ahead of time, so even in a best case scenario we get a He-Man "origin story" where nearly all the Heroic (and Evil) Masters are nonexistent or at-best background cameos with little or no development at all. The origin story and undoubtedly limited cast of the first film is going to hamper any attempts at truly "epic." Not that it couldn't build, but it'd be really difficult to squeeze the entire (current) mytharc into three movies.

 

 

Always an authority on every subject, aren't we?

 

By "treat the property with the respect it deserves" I meant stay true to what made anyone like it or stand by it over the years rather than change elements for the sake of change (like turning Skeletor into He-Man's father, making Adam and Teela teenage lovers, or decking He-Man out in a black leather costume) simply because it's not as popular or accepted as some other properties.

 

Don't turn it into something it was never intended to be (He-Man is not Conan the Barbarian, for example). Simply put, make a Masters of the Universe movie rather than some other movie that uses MOTU names and characters.

 

And you can have a successful MOTU film by staying true to the property. Writing is the key to anything (film, novel, television show, newstory, blog, etc.). Write a good story, and the rest takes care of itself. I'm not saying it will be anything earth-shattering, but there are lots of examples of solid, likable, successful films based on comics, toys, or books that weren't earth-shattering, either, and yet fans really enjoyed.

 

Side note: for someone as intelligent as you clearly believe yourself to be, something like "LAWL" really undermines that line of thinking for anyone else. It's an entirely unnecessary inclusion. :)

 

This argument would have more weight if Masters of the Universe continuity wasn't already riddled with multiple incarnations and general inconsistency. Is MotU the somewhat grittier universe of the early Mini-Comics? Is it the breezy cheesy Filmation cartoon? Is it the "kitchen sink" attempt at continuity that MotUC has been trying to cobble together? Where do 200X and New Adventures and even She-Ra fit in? He-Man has already been changed more than once to try to suit new audiences. It will again in the future. Skeletor certainly wasn't always Keldor/Adam's Uncle, for example.

 

And let's be honest...direct interpretation of many of the classic costumes would look absolutely ridiculous on-screen. Furry underpants and harnesses? Even if they find a sufficiently beefy/cut/chiseled guy who can actually act for beans to play He-Man...it's got a lot of potential to look horribad on-screen unless changes are made.

 

Not sayin' He-Man should be put in black leather mind you (and I doubt they'll go that route, anyway...they'll still want him to be recognizable as He-Man). I think if anything, MotU is more likely to be compared to Marvel's Thor than say, X-Men. But I could very easily see the harness being turned into a full breastplate, for example, and -Skeletor- being pretty much clad in black leather. I just don't see the "tons of virtually bare-chested guys" thing working out. I suppose they could try to go the "300" route but really...He-Man already gets a seemingly-endless litany of homoeroticism jokes...do we want more?

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"I think a fair argument could be made that the universe is there, but not so much the characters. The characters are basically...cartoons. Cartoons with far less history than the characters with decades upon decades of history and development that we get in franchises like Batman, Superman, Marvel, et al...

 

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe has never really been about great storytelling. It's original concepts are relatively imaginative (even if basically a fusion of Conan the Barbarian with Flash Gordon with a dash of Captain Marvel), but the characters have rarely, if ever, been particularly deep, and the storytelling (especially that with which most people are familiar with...the Filmation cartoon) is often paper-thin. By these reckonings, trying to turn MotU into a sweeping epic for the ages would arguably be changing it even more than any of the other things mentioned as concerns by the fans here!

 

I absolutely agree that it'd be quite nice if they concentrated on quality above-all. I doubt John Chu or anyone else involved is going to set out to deliberately make a bad movie, and there's even the possibility that, like Avengers, a paper-thin plot can be overcome with charismatic actors and a breezy, fun script. The problem being that the Masters of the Universe won't all have their own individual movies to set them up ahead of time, so even in a best case scenario we get a He-Man "origin story" where nearly all the Heroic (and Evil) Masters are nonexistent or at-best background cameos with little or no development at all. The origin story and undoubtedly limited cast of the first film is going to hamper any attempts at truly "epic." Not that it couldn't build, but it'd be really difficult to squeeze the entire (current) mytharc into three movies"

 

I respect what your saying here, but i don't think your being very open minded about the potential. Yes, in the past MOTU has been pretty dumbed down and cartoony, most characters aren't deep as you say. But I think all that could be changed for the better if handled correctly. Not every supporting character has to have a super deep origin story. The main focus should be with He-Man, Teela, Man at Arms, Skeletor, Evil Lyn, and Beast Man. All other characters could be plot supporting. In every new movie, more supporting characters will appear with only brief references to their origin if need be. If they took a "less is more" approach regarding CGI, the films wouldn't be overwhelmingly filled with pointless eye candy like every other movie out today. Also things like promotional posters being hand painted, a lost art as it is would add to the epicness. Give the movie an awesome symphonic score that compliments each scene, focus on the story, the mood, cinematography, make it a work of art, not an onslaught of nothing but explosions and action sequences... With this movie they need to take a few steps backwards while also moving forward if you know what I mean.

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