This week came the news that finally a new version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was back on track towards getting a live action feature film helmed by Jon Chu, director of the upcoming G.I. Joe Retaliation. With that franchise and the Transformers movies churning out box office hits and with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot on the way from Michael Bay's production company Platinum Dunes it was inevitable that the other big 80's Saturday morning cartoons would be adapted before long. The two remaining ones which immediately come to mind from my youth are Thundercats - which has just aired a new anime style TV series which I have yet to see, but which appears to have been cancelled after just 1 season - and He-Man, the story of... well I'll just let the opening theme tell you-
As a child He-Man was a perennial favourite of mine so naturally the thought of a re-emergance of the franchise give me both nostalgic excitement and a bout of terrible nervousness. I thought the first live action Transformers was an interesting enough adaptation, but both sequels are absolutely horrible. G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra was just too far separated from its roots to really excite me, thought the trailer for its sequel looks at least a marginal improvement. In both instances I've found the emphasis on putting the characters in dark, realistic situations to be their downfall and the story and mythology behind the series' comes second to visual effects and painful attempts at humor. I still often get the urge to watch both the Transformers and G.I. Joe animated films on a regular basis, but never their live action counterparts, because frankly they're better in ever conceivable way.
Of-course MOTU itself had its own live action film long before Transformers and G.I.Joe, and even the original series of live-action TMNT films. Though the film is oft forgotten for good reasons I honestly find it to be enjoyable in a cheesy, campy way so long as I don't think of it too much as being a He-Man film (but then again I have a soft spot for trashy un-ambitious sci-fi and horror). It has a lot of charm, something which cannot be said of the recent revivals of its fellow cartoons. The one area where everyone can agree it did hit the nail firmly on the head (or skull to be exact) would be in He-Man's arch nemesis Skeletor, played by screen legend Frank Langella who absolutely stole the show from a well cast but poorly written He-Man played by old Drago himself - Dolph Lundgren. I've always thought that the villains of these old cartoons' were the most important and interesting characters of all, and Skeletor here is every bit the bad-ass villain you want him to be - a stark contrast to the live action versions Megatron who is just another indistinguishable CG render, and Cobra Commander who got all of 2 seconds screentime. The final fight between Skeletor and He-Man sits in the same part of my memory as the Luke vs Vader vs Palpetine fight from Return of the Jedi (with which is shares a lot of parallels) as blowing my mind as a young boy.
It's hard to think of anyone who could top that performance off the top of my head however my personal choice would be Michael C Hall who seems to have the right facial structure at least, and would probably be an interesting contrast to Channing Tatum who seems to be the front-runner for the He-Man role, though I'm not sure he could muster the over the top evilness he would have to bring to the role. As a more "out-there" choice however I think Michael Keaton would be very interesting and could bring just the right mix of tongue-in-cheek sinisterness that's required. Being slightly older I think he'd also compliment well my choice for He-Man...
...Matthew McConaughey. The man can do no wrong at the moment and has the long hair and physique that are perfect for the character. The hair in particular I think would be difficult to pull off for most of the potential actors going up for the role, but I think it's an iconic part of the character and needs to be kept. His diversity as an actor too gives me confidence that he could pull of the duality of the character as the bumbling Prince Adam as well as He-Man.
As for the tone and story of the film I would simply say keep it simple. There's no need to get hung up on complicated origin and back stories or making it dark and gritty. I just don't think it would suit the material. Make it a simple story of goodies vs baddies in a fantasy world and make it as fun as possible. I really don't see the harm in making the target demographic children. Childrens films seem to be dominated by original Pixar and Dreamworks creations, but I don't see why you can't put a big, colourful, live action cartoon up there on the big screen. I guarantee fathers and sons would eat it up, especially if the big name stars where there to give the film some credibility.
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