For those of you who may not be familiar with the material... where the hell did you grow up? Anyway, this Dream Movie will only be a list of characters and generalized storylines, so no spoiler warning needed.
The story follows Prince Adam, heir to the throne of planet Eternia, who accidentally finds his way into Castle Grayskull, where the Sorceress tells him of his destiny to become the gaurdian of Eternia and the universe. He is given the Sword of Power, and so becomes He-Man. Along with his companian and friend Cringer (who becomes Battle-Cat when Adam becomes He-Man) they defend his kingdom from the threat of evil-doers. Enter Skeletor, an evil sorcerer from Infinita, Eternia's sister planet, who will stop at nothing to pocess the power of Grayskull for himself, so that he may rule the universe for his own evil purposes. His army of creatures and such travel to Eternia by means of a magical portal, and are now dwelling in Snake Mountain, which has been feared on Eternia for eons. There Skeletor and his minions are teaming with a clan of snake men, who also would like to see Eternia enslaved, though both King Hiss of the snake men and Skeletor have their own secret agendas, as well.
Teela, Adam/He-Man's girl, and step-daughter to Duncan, the kindom's Man-At-Arms (head gaurdsman), gets kidnapped in the night from the palace. The surrender of the Sword of Power is the only ransom they demand, and so Adam sets off with his friend Duncan to surrender to Skeletor. But, as it turns out Skeletor doesn't have Teela, another, more sinister force is at play here, and so He-Man and Duncan escape Skeletor's clutches and go back to the palace. They assemble a team to accompany their search for Teela, gathering the best warriors in Eternia. Meanwhile, Skeletor and KIng Hiss learn of what's actually happening, and incorporate this into their plan to attack the palace. With He-Man gone, along with the best warriors, their chances for success are great. So the rag-tag team of rescuers journey across Eternia, learning what they can from friends such as Stratos of Avion and the bird men, and Stonedar of the rockmen. They figure out that she is being held by a long forgotten evil known as the Horde. Their intentions... unknown. Skeletor and King Hiss storm the palace, and take over, throwing King Randor and Queen Marlena into the dungeons, being guarded by Evil-Lyn (Skeletor's second in command) herself. Skeletor and King Hiss now control the palace to Eternia, and await He-Man's arrival, when they will use the King and Queen's lives to trade for He-Man's sword. Without his sword, he is just a man.
The team reaches the Horde Lair, and after much battle they enter, retrieve Teela, and have a showdown with Hordak, the leader. He is beaten (or is he?) and they flee. Back at the palace, one of Skeletor's warriors Kobra-Kahn turns out to be a traitor, and KIng Hiss takes control, banishing Evil-Lyn and Skeletor to a dungeon cell of their own. His men are told to join the snake-men, or share their leader's fate. Of course, Skeletor ends up turning it all around, defeating King Hiss, and just in time for He-Man to arrive. He tells him to give up his sowrd, he does, and Skeletor goes for the sword. With it, he will be unstoppable. The Sorceress enters the picture now, and warns Skeletor of the dangers, he tells her to piss off, but unfortunately for him she was right. The sword only gives power to "the chosen one" and anyone with evil in their heart just gets burned by the sword. He-Man makes his move to escape, does, and battle rages. Big fight scenes, Skeletor is defeated and banished to Infinata, and his portal is closed by the Sorceress. But he's still alive, so's King Hiss, and so's Hordak. Plenty of sequel opportunities here. This is just a storyline I made up a couple years ago (actually it was gonna be a sequel idea, but the first one sucked so bad, why not just start over).
For more information, visit the official site: here.
This movie should have as many characters from the toys and cartoon as possible, but not as main characters. You don't want to sacrifice the story like Mortal Kombat Annihilation just to throw in alot of characters. They should be like cameos, just so people can go "Oh, look, it's so-and-so." The focus will be on Adam, his relationship to his family (particularly his Earth-born mother Marlena) and the Sorceress, as well as her relationship to Teela. Focus on the human drama of her kidnapping. Above all else, this movie has to make the characters believable. Skeletor, King Hiss, and the Horde all have to be evil and scary. No room for these guys to say stupid cheesy things like the cartoon does. They should downplay the character's names, especially He-Man, while at the same time portray it like it's something really great. Maybe He-Man is just a title given to him, like Man-At-Arms... as long as it's done with some sort of integrity, this could be a very good movie. In Lord of the Rings there are many unbelievable scenes and some of the character names are weird, but it works in the context of the world it is based. He-Man and the world of Eternia is not exactly on the same level as Tolkien, but it should be treated by the filmmakers as if it were.
Okay, enough of my babbling, let's get to it. I now pronounce you... I mean, I now present the SCP Dream Film of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
SPECIAL UPDATE: I've just learned that there's apparently an actual He-Man movie in pre-production stages. Doubtful it'll actually happened but if it does, just keep in mind that OURS IS BETTER... I mean, just look what they did with He-Man last time.
THE GOOD GUYS:
ADAM/HE-MAN: Aaron Eckhart
TEELA: Milla Jovovich
DUCAN/MAN-AT-ARMS: Sam Elliott
THE SORCERESS: Sigourney Weaver
KING RANDOR: Sean Connery
QUEEN MARLENA: Faye Dunaway
ORKO: David Arquette
FISTO: Colin Farrell
RAM MAN: Jack Black
MOSS MAN: Ving Rhames
MEKANECK: Tim Robbins
THE BAD GUYS:
SKELETOR: Powers Boothe
EVIL-LYN: Asia Argento
BEAST MAN: Vin Diesel
TRI-CLOPS: Cole Hauser
WEBSTER: Kevin Bacon
WHIPLASH: Tom Waits(Voice)
TRAP JAW: Michael Wincott
KOBRA KAHN: Stuart Townsend
TWO-BAD: Andrew Bryniarski
MER-MAN: Gabriel Byrne (Voice)
JITSU: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
KING HISS: Christopher Walken
TUNG LASHER: uncast at this time
RATTLOR: uncast at this time
SSSQUEEZE: uncast at this time
SNAKE FACE: uncast at this time
HORDAK: Laurence Fishburne
GRIZZLOR: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
LEACH: uncast at this time
MANTENNA: Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Voice)
MESQUITOR: uncast at this time
DRAGSTOR: uncast at this time
MODULOK: Gary Sinise (Voice)
STRATOS: Samuel L. Jackson
SY-CLONE: Jude Law
STONEDAR: Tom Cruise
ROKKON: Val Kilmer
RIO BLAST: Kurt Russell
DIRECTOR: Shekhar Kapur
PRODUCER: Frank Marshall
SCREENPLAY: David Koepp & Oliver Stone
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Oliver Stone & T. Garth Simmons
SPECIAL MAKE-UP EFFECTS: Rick Baker
I chose Kapur as a director for many reasons, but the largest was that his two most popular films (Elizabeth and The Four Feathers) were perfection. His style is dark, and uses lots of color, and his films seem to look like classic epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Cleopatra. I think a filmmaker who produces highly respected, beautiful, and serious work can make He-Man good, anyone else will make He-Man what they think He-Man is, just another shitty little cartoon getting turned into a film. This could be just like Scooby-Doo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or it could be Conan: The Barbarian meets Brotherhood of the Wolf, and that's what it should be.
You'll also notice that Oliver Stone will help write the screenplay (with Koepp helping keep it a little more mainstream). Stone may have written 'talking movies' like JFK and The Doors, and even his war films like Platoon have alot of conversation and not the kind of action that this should have, he still wrote what's the basis for why I think He-Man could work as a really good movie, and that's Conan: The Barbarian. He'll bring a sense of realism to an unbelievable story too, and like I mentioned, Koepp will keep Stone from getting too 'out there.' He-Man is not a film that should have symbolic references to 60s political scandals. (Though, that might be interesting...)
Pictures: character/cast comparisons, teaser posters, maybe a final poster, and who knows what else, all coming as soon as I can start working on it!
ORIGINAL SCORE BY: James Horner
Composer James Horner has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won for his score for the film Titanic. I chose him because all of his film scores cover every single emotion. From Aliens to Braveheart to An American Tail to A Beautiful Mind and so on and so on... his themes are not only outstanding, but most likely you've left one these films and commented on how awesome the music was. Just go look through his film score credits, he's the best there is.
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