WB loses He-Man

Not surprisingly, since the project has been gathering powder on Joel Silver’s shelves for a couple of years now, Mattel has yanked the “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” movie away from Warner Bros.

Before Warner snagged the rights to the 80s cartoon favourite, Fox2000 bore ownership. It was there that the project inched as close to production as it’s gotten, with John Woo signing on to direct an Adam Rifkin-penned script, and casting agents reportedly looking at everyone from Paul Walker to Triple H, Christopher Showerman and Matthew Davis for the role of the sandy-haired Battle-Cat Jockey.

Once Warner got involved, the project barely moved an inch. In fact, it went through several rewrites (Evan Daugherty penned the latest draft of the script; Justin Marks, another), numerous production delays, and ultimately had fans wondering whether the studio did in fact have plans to make it. The studio did, however, recently appoint John Stevenson (“Kung Fu Panda”) as the film’s director, suggesting it may be inching forward. According to the trades, he’ll likely be retaining his job – even if the WB won’t be in on the meetings from here on out.

Mattel and WB didn’t see eye to eye over the direction of the project and made a mutual decision to let the option lapse this month. Wouldn’t surprise me if Disney get the call…

Variety has the full story…