New information regarding the on-again/off-again He-Man movie reboot, Masters of the Universe, hasn't exactly been flying at a whirlwind pace. In fact, the project has been in a serious state of flux over the past three years, as two directors were rumored to be attached - John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) and Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) - and the entire project moved from Warner Bros studios to Sony Entertainment.

Last year a Masters of the Universe script written by Justin Marks (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li) was scrapped and writers Alex Livtak and Michael Finch (Predators) were brought on board by Sony to pen a new script. Writing a script for a massive project like this must take a really long time, because 15 months later, the pair still haven't turned anything in for review.

However, in a recent interview with online magazine Crosswalk, Sony Vice President DeVon Franklin gave a quick update on the status of the He-Man script:

"One of other things I’m really excited about is we’re doing a reboot of the 1980s franchise Masters of the Universe. The He-Man franchise. Very excited about that. Should have that script very soon. I’m praying that we can start figuring out how we’re going to make it."

"Very soon" really isn't a lot to go on, but producer Todd Black (Seven Pounds) told us to check back in one to six months and they should have an update by then. If it does indeed take Litvak and Finch close to 20 months to write a script, then fans of the He-Man franchise will expect nothing short of a Citizen Kane-type story.  Even though the film is based on a toy line, that doesn't mean it can't have a great story - and as we found out a couple of weeks ago with Green Lantern, a cohesive story is essential to any film, regardless of how pretty it looks onscreen.

With 130 episodes of He-Man cartoons, plus an additional 93 episodes of She-Ra cartoons to draw inspiration from, Litvak and Finch should have no trouble putting together a great story filled with lots of intriguing characters. To help them and Sony out a bit, here are a few things to include and not include in a Masters of the Universe reboot:

  • Don't rely heavily on CGI for every single costume (ex: Green Lantern).
  • Don't try to tell the entire history of every character in one sitting - stretch it out over multiple films so audiences can get to know and love each character.
  • Do include fan-favorite characters such as Man-At-Arms, Battle Cat, Mer-Man and Orko.
  • Do keep the entire movie set in Eternia - Audiences have seen the "fish out of water" story of bringing cartoon characters into the modern world too much (ex: the original Masters of the Universe movie, Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks)

Other than the writers, no one else is officially attached to the Masters of the Universe project (or Grayskull as it is tentatively called), but as we get closer to seeing a finished script we expect that to change.

What other tips would you give Sony regarding the making of Masters of the Universe?

Follow me on Twitter - @Walwus - and tell me who is your favorite He-Man character.

Source: Crosswalk, Image by Earl Norem