Jeff Wadlow to rewrite Masters of the Universe screenplay... and direct?

Masters of the Universe movie has long been overdue for a new film adaptation. The 1987 adaptation was such a bad movie that from then on, it was difficult for Hollywood to imagine what a good Masters of the Universe should be like. But Sony has been developing a reboot of the Mattel adaptation for a few years now. G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu was previously attached to direct the project, but dropped out. Pirates of the Caribbean co-writer Terry Rossio came aboard to rewrite the screenplay, but apparently the project still has a significant amount of development left to go. Now, Kick-Ass 2 writer/director Jeff Wadlow has signed on to do another rewrite of the script.[hit the jump to continue]

As of the moment, Wadlow's job is merely to mold the Masters of the Universe screenplay into something good enough for the studio to finally work on. There is no official word yet whether Wadlow will also direct the movie, but the possibilities of that happening is pretty big now, considering what his duties are towards the screenplay. A couple of months ago a shortlist of possible directors surfaced that included The Mortal Instruments helmer Harald Zwart and Another Earth director Mike Cahill. Wadlow is the third, and of the three seems like the better choice. Aside from Kick-Ass 2, he's also directed "Never Back Down" and "Cry_Wolf". He's also the candidate to direct the X-men spin-off movie "X-Force". Having spent his childhood during the 80's we can assume that he has a familiar knowledge with the "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon, that seems like a good indication that he is suited for the project (he's just the right age when the cartoon was at its height. Zwart is a decade older, Cahill is 3 years younger).

Masters of the Universe actually began as a line of action figure toys, which later crossed over into being a comicbook and a super-successful cartoon series in the 1980s. The main storyline differed; the original mini-comics that went with the toy had a simple story of He-Man being a wandering barbarian who helped vanquish evil. The cartoons later provided a more kid-friendly development of the Masters of the Universe lore. Of course, the cartoon version was the more popular; Set in the world of Eternia, Prince Adam, who pretends to be clumsy and lazy, uses his magical sword to reveal his alter-ego, He-Man who possesses incredible strength and fighting abilities used to vanquish Skeletor and his minions from taking over Castle Grayskull, which is believed to hold many secrets of magic which can give one the powers to become the master of the universe. The cartoon version has so much silliness and goof that it could have been the reason why up till now it was so difficult to get it intepreted into a marketable film adaptation. Nevertheless, Sony has been working hard to get the Masters of the Universe movie off the ground for some time, and now let's hope that Jeff Wadlow does hold the right ideas for this movie.