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Even as he presides over an animated adaptation of Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ illustrated novel Wildwood, Laika’s president and CEO, Travis Knight, is zeroing in on the next effort of his live-action directing career: a Masters of the Universe movie, according to Deadline.
Yes, you read that right. Knight, after winning critical acclaim for directing films like Kubo and the Two Strings—which WW’s review described as “a high-octane spectacle full of white-knuckle action and terrifying creatures”—wants to tell the tale of Prince Adam claiming the Power Sword and learning the importance of declaring, “By the power of Grayskull!”
Knight hasn’t officially closed his deal to direct Masters of the Universe, which will be released by Amazon MGM Studios. But he was serious enough about the project to enlist the services of a fellow Laika stalwart: Chris Butler, the ParaNorman co-director who will script Masters.
If the new film gets made, it will be a victory for Knight, who has struggled to settle on a live-action project ever since he directed the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee (which is both the best-reviewed and lowest-grossing installment of that franchise in the United States).
Post-Bumblebee, Knight has devoted his attention to Wildwood, while seeking work on another live-action film. But most of the projects he flirted with—including The Six Billion Dollar Man and a Netflix vampire movie—have yet to come to fruition. (Meanwhile, Portlanders with long memories look back with fondness on Knight’s first and perhaps greatest artistic endeavor.)
If the new Masters of the Universe doesn’t get made—which, judging by its tortured history in Hollywood, is very possible—Los Angeles-based subsidiary Laika Live Action is still working on adapting John Brownlow’s novel Seventeen, which does not require the power of Grayskull.
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