The Masters of the Universe toy and cartoon franchise got a live-action film adaptation back in 1987, with Dolph Lundgren taking on the role of lead hero He-Man, who defends the planet Eternia (and the rest of the universe) from evil forces, usually headed up by the villain Skeletor. To cut costs, the majority of the film is set on 1980s Earth, with He-Man and various other characters being transported from Eternia to Earth with the use of a “Cosmic Key.” Another live-action film adaptation of Masters of the Universe has been in development hell for a long time, but it looks like might finally escape into production, as Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Studios have announced that the movie will be receiving a theatrical release on June 5, 2026. Technically, summer in the northern hemisphere won’t begin until June 21st in 2026, but this is considered a summer release because summer starts early in the movie industry.
Oddly, despite technological advances and the fact that this movie is likely to have a much larger budget than the ’87 movie, the filmmakers are still planning to set a chunk of its running time on Earth.
Bumblebee director Travis Knight is at the helm of this new take on Masters of Universe, working from a screenplay by Chris Butler that’s based on earlier drafts by David Callaham and formerly attached directors Aaron and Adam Nee. The story follows ten-year-old Prince Adam who crashed to Earth in a spaceship and was separated from his magical Power Sword—the only link to his home on Eternia. After tracking it down almost two decades later, Prince Adam is whisked back across space to defend his home planet against the evil forces of Skeletor. But to defeat such a powerful villain, Prince Adam will first need to uncover the mysteries of his past and become He-Man: the most powerful man in the Universe.
This still doesn’t sound like the ideal story for a live-action Masters of Universe movie to me and I’m not sure why they mixed a bit of the Superman set-up into this version of He-Man, but we’ll see how it turns out.
The new live-action Masters of Universe has been making its way through development hell since at least 2004, with many scripts being written over the years as the project passed through the hands of directors like John Woo, John Stevenson, Jon M. Chu, Jeff Wadlow, McG, David S. Goyer, and the Nee brothers. It has bounced from studio to studio: Warner Bros., Sony, Netflix. Noah Centineo and Kyle Allen have been attached to star at different points. It’s been quite a mess, but it might be on track now.
Are you glad to hear the new Masters of Universe movie might finally get a theatrical release in 2026? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
We’re heading into the fifth month of 2024, and naturally, we have a full calendar of days and weeks of fresh new games to dig into. This month we’re looking at the anticipated sequel to Ninja Theory’s Hellblade, the return of Paper Mario, World of Goo, and yet another game that lets us play as a cat in a big city.…
We’re heading into the fifth month of 2024, and naturally, we have a full calendar of days and weeks of fresh new games to dig into. This month we’re looking at the anticipated sequel to Ninja Theory’s Hellblade, the return of Paper Mario, World of Goo, and yet another game that lets us play as a cat in a big city.…
Emma Stone knows to stick with what is working as she follows up her 2023 projects (which have garnered significant attention) with more from the same collaborators. Stone recently won an Academy Award for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things. Lanthimos would also already release a trailer for his next film, Kinds of Kindness, earlier this year and Stone is among the principal cast. Other than Poor Things, last year, Stone would star in a limited series for Showtime with comedic actor Nathan Fielder in a surreal dark comedy called The Curse, which would also feature a collaboration with Benny Safdie.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stone will also be reuniting with Fielder for another project with A24. The indie studio that features a bevy of off-beat films has recently had its biggest title with Civil War, and the company played its moves aggressively to beat out bigger studios for Checkmate. Checkmate is based on a true story and will be adapted from a book proposal from author Ben Mezrich, whose books were adapted into films such as The Social Network and Dumb Money. Nathan Fielder is attached to helm the movie as the director, and Stone is set to produce along with her husband and producing partner, Dave McCary, with the duo’s label, Fruit Tree.
The description of the project states, “In true Mezrich fashion, Checkmate sees the author tackling an esoteric and true life whose story may still be developing. Per the proposal that was being circulated, the book will spotlight the biggest scandal in the history of chess, focusing on the generational battle between Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and the young bad boy of chess, Hans Niemann. The latter was accused of cheating in one of the pair’s head-to-head matches, which became an all-consuming scandal in the world of chess and beyond. Per the package, the story is not only about the rivalry and the scandal, but the macro backdrop is the rise of a billion-dollar chess industry and so-called ‘collision of tradition and innovation’ in the game.” (per The Hollywood Reporter)
An insider revealed that A24’s aggressive method for acquiring the movie included making an offer that guaranteed seven figures and setting a 30-minute timer for a decision to be made. The insider was taken aback as much as the studios were, saying, “I’ve never seen A24 do that before.” Another source stated, “I guess A24 is competing now.”
PLOT: The series will follow Jason Dessen, a physicist, professor, and family man who — one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago — is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.
REVIEW: Earlier this year, AppleTV+ debuted a series about alternate realities and dueling versions of characters in Constellation. That series carried a heavy science fiction focus that showed how parallel universes can carry paranoid variations on the lives of characters shifting between worlds. Dark Matter mines similar territory but in a far more grounded manner. Using the conceits of the thriller genre, Dark Matter adapts the best-selling novel by Blake Crouch into a masterful genre outing that defies the conventions of sci-fi with a broader tale full of twists, turns, and stellar performances from Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, and Alice Braga. Captivating from the first episode, Dark Matter is exceptional storytelling.
Dark Matter opens with Jason Dessen, a physicist living in Chicago, his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), and their son Charlie (Oakes Fegley) leading a happy life as a family. Working as a professor at a local college, Jason learns that his best friend Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) has won a prestigious science prize, which he has yearned to achieve. Never questioning his decisions in life, Jason is offered a job by Ryan, which would upend their happy home in Chicago. On his way home, Jason is mugged by a masked assailant who forces him to strip to his boxers and enter a strange room in an abandoned warehouse. After an odd conversation, Jason passes out, only to awaken in an unfamiliar facility where he meets Amanda (Alice Braga) and other unfamiliar people. Paranoid, Jason breaks out of the facility only to discover he is not in his own reality while his doppelganger has taken his place alongside Daniela.
Echoing Jason’s opening reference to the Schroedinger’s Cat thought experiment, Dark Matter delves into the idea of what a single change in decision-making could lead to. In the alternate world, Jason has created a machine that allows humans to traverse these distinct timelines, something his double has used to go to a world where he stayed with the love of his life. This triggers two narratives following unique genre structures to tell a fascinating and complex story. In one timeline, Alternate Jason is the strange one surrounded by people who feel something off about him, while in the other, Main Jason must come to terms with being the fish out of water in a world foreign to him. It is a brilliant and original way to focus a story like this that allows for elements of paranoid thrillers to mix with complex scientific ideas.
It also helps that Joel Edgerton is a fantastic lead as both versions of Jason Dessen. Edgerton is an incredibly talented actor who embodies an everyman quality in these roles while giving the audience a way to orient themselves to this convoluted myriad of universes. Jennifer Connelly and Alice Braga are equally skilled at playing different relationships that are key to each version of Jason, who must acclimate themselves to men who are not who they truly know. The whole cast is quite good, especially Jimmi Simpson and Dayo Okeniyi as colleagues of Jason’s who factor into the scientific process that kickstarts this tale. Altogether, Dark Matter must traverse some tricky plot conundrums but pulls it off without much of an issue. Because of how strong the acting is in this series, you are easily able to commit to the mind-altering complexity of this story.
Novelist Blake Crouch had previously attempted to adapt his book for a feature film. Still, the nine-episode series format benefits the narrative far better than a two-hour movie ever could. By changing elements of his novel and expanding others, Crouch himself has stated the series is an improvement over the source material. Filmed on location in Chicago, the series does not rely on significant special effects, but that does not mean this series is not deeply rooted in science fiction. The directing team, led by Jakob Verbruggen on the first three episodes and followed by helmers Logan George & Celine Held, Alik Sakharov, and Roxann Dawson, use the urban landscape of the city in both daytime and noir-esque night sequences that add to the atmosphere and mood of Dark Matter. This series looks fantastic and offers a look, unlike many other genre offerings on television, along with an eerie score by Mindhunter composer Jason Hill.
Whether you have read the novel or not, avoid any details about Dark Matter if you can help it. There are so many great angles this story takes that are unconventional for a series like this that discovering them from episode to episode enhances the experience of this story. Based on the cast alone, Dark Matter is worth checking out. AppleTV+ continues to excel as a home for creative expansions in the science fiction genre, but Dark Matter may be their best project since Severance. After the premiere episodes debut, Dark Matter will move to a weekly release schedule, and I cannot think of a better way to parse out this great tale that will have audiences theorizing week to week about what will come next.
Dark Matter premieres with two episodes on May 8th on AppleTV+.
This weekend marks the official start of the summer movie season. Yeah, I know – it’s still springtime, but if you follow blockbuster movie release dates, you’ll know that May’s always been prime real estate, with many of the biggest money earners of all time coming out in that month. Last year, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 kicked off the season with a muscular $118 million opening. Sadly, this year’s first big would-be blockbuster, The Fall Guy, looks like it will only open with about a fraction of that take, with the industry predicting a $35-40 million opening.
That opening would put it right in line with director David Leitch’s last big action flick, Bullet Train, which opened with $30 million on its way to a $103 million North American cume and a $239 million worldwide total. That was considered a more-than-ok number, considering the film only had a budget in the $90 million range. However, The Fall Guy, which is based on the classic TV series, costs significantly more and has been getting hyped like crazy. After all, it unites two stars of last year’s Barbenheimer phenomena for an action romance. The reviews have been more than decent (including ours), and star Ryan Gosling’s career seems hotter than ever.
So why isn’t it expected to open any better?
Truth be told, the business has changed a lot in recent years, with audiences now accustomed to waiting until they can catch a film at home. Release windows have shrunk, and home theaters have gotten more affordable, so audiences have to be sure they’re getting their money’s worth. For an epic like Dune: Part Two, they’re happy to shell out cash, but I imagine a lot of people are on the fence about The Fall Guy, making it a movie that will live or die by word-of-mouth.
That said, I’m expecting it’ll open on the low end of expectations, with $35 million, although it could play very well throughout the month if it manages to appeal to a wide audience, just like Barbie did. The Fall Guy will be helped by the fact that it’s a good movie, and maybe, with its relatively tame PG-13 rating, it’ll bring in a family audience, although it will have big competition next weekend with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It can’t be denied that the fact that a $35-40 million opening will be considered a “win” goes to show how dire the theatrical exhibition business has become.
Otherwise, the rest of the top 5 should be low-wattage, with Zendaya’s Challengers likely to slip to second place with about a $7 million weekend. At the same time, I expect the Christian pic, Unsung Hero, to end in third place with about $6 million. I think the little-discussed horror flick, Tarot, should open at about $5 million in fourth place. And, finally, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace is celebrating its 25th anniversary this weekend with a re-release. Nostalgic fans should give it a decent enough opening to get it to fifth place.
Here’s what we’re thinking the weekend box office will look like:
The Fall Guy: $35 million
Challengers: $7 million
Unsung Hero: $6 million
Tarot: $5 million
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (re-release): $4 million
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga serves as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road; In fact, director George Miller has said that the movie will “butt up directly into Fury Road,” so what does that mean for Max Rockatansky?
Miller has previously said that Max is “lurking there in the background” of Furiosa, but he provided more detail on this “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo” while speaking with Entertainment Weekly. The director confirms that Max and his car, the Interceptor, will appear in the prequel. “In doing what we did in the preparation of Mad Max: Fury Road, we also wrote what happened to Max in the year before we encounter him in [that film],” Miller said. “And as we get towards the end of this movie, the chronology… Basically, we had to see that Mad Max was lurking around somewhere because we do know what happened.” It sounds as though the Mad Max cameo in Furiosa is quite brief, but it will be fun to see.
Miller teased that there’s another potential Fury Road prequel dealing with what Max was up to that he’d like to develop. “The writers know what happened to Mad Max in that year before, and we have a whole story of that,” Miller said, “which I would like to do sometime if I get the chance.“
Furiosa will hopefully be successful and set the stage for more Mad Max movies, including the long-rumoured Mad Max: The Wasteland. A six-minute sneak peek of Furiosa was screened at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, which our own Chris Bumbray attended, and it sounded pretty epic.
The official synopsis for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: “As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by the Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.“
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hit theaters on May 24th.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TVwas a bombshell documentary series which put the spotlight on the toxic and disturbing culture behind the scenes at Nickelodeon during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Particular focus was paid to Dan Schneider, the producer behind many of Nickelodeon’s biggest hits during that time, but he’s fighting back with a lawsuit against the producers of Quiet on Set.
While Dan Scheider has apologized for the behaviour that was depicted on Quiet on Set, he feels that the documentary series has destroyed his “legacy and reputation” by alleging that he was a sexual abuser. The documentary revealed that dialogue coach Brian Peck and former production assistant Jason Handy were child sexual abusers, with Peck serving 16 months in prison for sexually assaulting Drake Bell. While Scheider hasn’t been accused of any sexual abuse, he believes the documentary implies that he was either involved or knew about the crimes committed by Peck and Handy.
“Recently the docuseries Quiet on Set highlighted mistakes I made and poor judgment I exhibited during my time at Nickelodeon, most of which happened decades ago during my early career as a producer, working on shows for Tollin/Robbins Productions,” Scheider said in a statement. “There is no doubt that I was sometimes a bad leader. I am sincerely apologetic and regretful for that behavior, and I will continue to take accountability for it.“
Scheider continued: “However, after seeing Quiet on Set and its trailer, and the reactions to them, I sadly have no choice but to take legal action against the people behind it,” he continued. “In their successful attempt to mislead viewers and increase ratings, they went beyond reporting the truth and falsely implied that I was involved in or facilitated horrific crimes for which actual child predators have been prosecuted and convicted. I have no objection to anyone highlighting my failures as a boss, but it is wrong to mislead millions of people to the false conclusion that I was in any way involved in heinous acts like those committed by child predators. I owe it to myself, my family, and the many wonderful people involved in making these shows to set the record straight.“
In the lawsuit, Dan Schneider accuses Warner Bros, Maxine Productions, Sony Pictures, and Quiet on the Set producers Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz of defamation.
Last month, Take-Two announced it was “rationalizing its pipeline” by cutting hundreds of jobs and cancelling $140 million worth of in-development projects. Today, it moved ahead with shutting down the studios behind Kerbal Space Program 2 and OlliOlli World, Bloomberg reports.
Last month, Take-Two announced it was “rationalizing its pipeline” by cutting hundreds of jobs and cancelling $140 million worth of in-development projects. Today, it moved ahead with shutting down the studios behind Kerbal Space Program 2 and OlliOlli World, Bloomberg reports.
