Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Travis Knight admits that Masters of the Universe is “tricky” to adapt for the big screen.
The 52-year-old director has helmed the new movie based on the Mattel franchise but appreciates that the “almost deranged” world of He-Man is difficult to translate into a film – as shown by the critical and commercial failure of the 1987 picture that starred Dolph Lundgren in the lead role.
Knight told IndieWire: “I do think it’s kind of tricky material. In the sense that, it’s weird. It’s almost deranged. It’s pure, uncut, Colombian-grade 80s excess. It’s completely out there.
“There are barbarians with battle axes and swords, robots with laser guns, spaceships, a warlock with a skull for a face. None of that s*** should work. Some things shouldn’t go together. And somehow, crazily, they do. And it does work.”
Masters of the Universe spent years stuck in development hell before Knight was able to make his version – which stars Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes and Jared Leto – and the director says working behind the camera was “easy” because of his passion for the franchise.
Asked why other filmmakers have had difficulty with the Masters of the Universe world, the Bumblebee director said: “A lot of things have to go right for any movie to get made. On this, we have producers who believe in the material and believe in their filmmaker. And we have Mattel, who completely got behind my vision for the project… those things are not a given.
“If any one of those things doesn’t work, then the movie doesn’t work. And then, with me, you have a director who knew and loved the material.
“Sometimes, adaptations, no matter where they come from – book, graphic novel, video game, toy line – when I see them fall down, it’s when the people involved in making the film don’t understand what was special about the thing they are adapting. They don’t love the thing they are adapting.”
Knight continued: “For me, it was easy. Well, making a movie is never easy. But it was easy for me to understand what this could be because it was such a huge part of my childhood. I loved it. I love these characters so much. And I knew what that inner eight-year-old would want to see on the big screen.
“I could see why people would fall down. To try to take this property and turn it into something it isn’t? That would have been a recipe for disaster. So, for me, it was just wrapping our arms around all this weirdness. And that was a virtue.”
Lundgren, 68, makes a cameo appearance in the new movie as ‘Macho Man’ and Knight was delighted that the Rocky IV star agreed to be a part of the project.
The director said: “He was super-cool about it. I was desperate to get Dolph into the movie. I kept hounding the producers, ‘I have to get in touch with Dolph! I have to get in touch with Dolph!’
“So, when I finally did connect with him, I told him what I was thinking and he was down for it. He was such a good sport.”
Knight added: “The character actually meant something to him. It famously did not do particularly well at the box office, but he loved the character. So the idea he could play a part in this symbolic passing of the torch from the previous cinematic He-Man to the new cinematic He-Man, he was totally down for that.
“He was such a good sport and so much fun to work with on the day, and it was actually quite moving for me to see those two guys together.”
