He-Man Settles At Columbia

Published on September 24, 2009 by Craig Sharp · View Comments

he-man-skeletor Masters of the Universe may be settling down at Columbia Pictures according to THR. Just a few weeks after Warner Bros. let their film option slide on the popular Mattel property, Columbia have entered negotiations for the option with Escape Artists attached to produce.

Warners picked up the rights to He-Man, Skeletor and co. in 2007, and put several writers on the project with John Stevenson to direct. Justin Marks put together a treatment back in 2008 which in turn was reviewed positively by several sites, however Mattel and Warner Bros. disagreed over the tone and feel of the movie and the project was stifled.

From the get go, Masters was likely doomed at Warner Bros. With the studio under pressure to deliver quality DC Comics properties to the screen Masters was always going to be an after thought, couple that with Mattel’s distaste for Justin Marks’ brilliant script and the film would always have been a compromise on both side.

With any luck things will move faster at Columbia, with Mattel keen to get their properties on the big screen much like their competitor, Hasbro, I should imagine it won’t be too long before Castle Grayskull makes it onto the screen.

Escape Artists is run by Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch and credits include “The Taking of Pelham 123,” “Knowing” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.”