'Bumblebee' Director Travis Knight In Deep Talks For 'Masters Of The Universe' Movie

The Laika head may soon be granted the power of Grayskull to get this long-developing film going

Laika President, CEO and director Travis Knight is in final negotiations to direct Mattel’s long in-development Masters of the Universe movie, as it closes in on securing Amazon MGM Studios for distribution rights. While the deal hasn’t closed as other elements for the project make their way, it’s looking to be quite the confident call.

This also comes with a writing update, as Chris Butler, a Laika alum himself as the director and writer of ParaNorman and Missing Link, is coming in to rewrite the script from David Callaham and Aaron & Adam Nee‘s initial draft. Knight is the President and CEO of Laika, where he directed Kubo and the Two Strings, which Butler also wrote, but he made his way into live-action/animation hybrids with 2018’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. He got the studios’ eyes on him by delivering said Transformers film below the normal budget. He reportedly won favor for the Masters of the Universe by being the only director to give a presentation in-person, doing so last week.

Apparently, this iteration of the 1980s-born franchise will see a second try at a “He-Man on Earth” story infamously tried by the 1987 film starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. It sees 9-year-old Prince Adam crash to Earth in a spaceship and finds him separated from his Magical Sword, his one link to Eternia. After tracking it down for nearly two decades, Adam is summoned back home to defend it against Skeletor’s evil forces. To defeat him, Prince Adam must uncover the mysteries of his past and take on the vast powers of He-Man.

Talks with Amazon MGM were first reported this past November, after Netflix dropped the film in July. While the reasoning was sound, it was still surprising as the franchise managed to otherwise flourish at the streamer in recent years. Three animated series based on characters from the franchise have been Netflix original series. The first was 2018’s She-Ra: Princess of Power reboot from DreamWorks Animation, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which for various reasons could not establish connection to He-Man. In 2021, He-Man received a sequel series to the original, Masters of the Universe: Revelation from Kevin Smith with Supergirl’s Chris Wood in the role, as well as a second reboot, a CG He-Man and the Masters of the Universe with Yuri Lowenthal in the role. The latter had a 26 episode season split into three, and a five episode second season for the former, subtitled Revolution, premiered in January. Mattel’s Robbie Brenner and Escape Artists’ Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal are the producers on this new film.

Source: Deadline