Reply With Quotefirts one , I always imagine a scene like this in the beginning
that was the most interesting part of the marks' script and also I think king grayskull must be a fundamental character in the upcoming movie.
I was thinking about how a MOTU movie would begin. Films like this tend to kick things off with a cool prologue sequence depicting some past event.
If they go with that approach, off the top of my head there are 3 that could be used:
#1
King Grayskull's (final?) battle(s) against evil forces (which is how Marks' script opened)
#2
Randor defeats Keldor (same as the 200X toon)
#3
Marlena crash lands on Eternia, meets Randor
No version has ever opened with #3, and for good reason; Marlena coming from Earth is agonizingly irrelevant to the overall mythology. But it could be an interesting way of initiating us puny Earthlings into the world of Eternia. Maybe
firts one , I always imagine a scene like this in the beginning
that was the most interesting part of the marks' script and also I think king grayskull must be a fundamental character in the upcoming movie.
The movie should be made in the next 2 to 3 years. Also, they should film in Toronto, Canada. Why Toronto? Because I'm in the actor's union, and I want to be in a MOTU film!!!
The film should start with Dolph Lundgren as King Grayskull, defeating the Horde and sending Hordak to Despondos. Grayskull's sacrifice is important. (Think Jor-El in 'Superman', or Captain Kirk's Dad saving the USS Kelvin in 'Star Trek' 2009.) The audience is gripped by their sacrifice, and better leads them into the world of the film.
Last edited by Captain Atkin; May 3, 2011 at 03:11am.
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I'd love to see it start off with Hordak and Grayskull's fight, a tad retconned to infer that by his name great heroes would emerge. That would set up a great half and half movie, a story about He-Man's origins like shown in the MYP series and then his quest to find his sister. That way if the movie is successful, we don't have to wait years and years for She-Ra to get out of development hell and to set up a badass Hordak for any She-Ra solo movies.
I'd also love to hear a little internal monologue the first time they both transform instead of the stock transformation sequences...sort of a 'what the hell is happening to me?' moment until they turn into their alter egos.
Last edited by sw1701; June 1, 2011 at 09:08pm.
A back-story of Eternia and explaining the sword of power and what it does and where it comes from. I would love to see a prologue scene, like the one in the first LOTR film, with King Grayskull battling Hordak for Eternia.
Yeah, whilst overall I didn’t like the amateurish nature of Marks’ script, I really felt his beginning was pretty strong.
Last edited by Krueger; June 1, 2011 at 09:59pm.
I'd like the movie to open with an epic battle scene, in the same style as the Lord of the Rings prologue, followed by a long voice-over introduction exploring the world of Eternia and explaining the eternal struggle between the defenders of Castle Grayskull and the denizens of Snake Mountain.
Then I'd cut to the royal palace where a young Randor defeats Keldor's uprising and marries queen Marlena (who is NOT from Earth), which results in the birth of Adam and Adora.
In comes a screen with "20 years later" and thus the stage is set for the movie to take off ...
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The following points are (for me) vital:
1. It's not set on Earth.
2. He-Man is not from Earth.
3. Doesn't rely on excessive special effects.
4. Doesn't twist the mythology and try to "re-invent the wheel" for whatever reason.
5. Uses existing mythology to make an interesting and appealing story/plot.
Having said that, i wish that it was announced as a trilogy and followed a similar path as LOTR but with a distinct MotU flavour.
I'd want the writers to use or blend existing stories from either the mini-comics and/or cartoons and put a little bit of their own input as well to create something special.
How the film should open i'm unsure but where is a no brainer of course. It should 100% be on Eternia.
I would go with 2. or some variation of it, for one simple reason: the first movie must introduce Skeletor as the main antagonist. If we are first told about this awesomely powerful superior evil and then offered this completely different bad guy, it diminishes the threat he poses and distracts from the main plot. It might even create the expectation that Hordak must show up before the end of the movie. Imagine if the LOTR had started with the Valar fighting Morgoth. Admittedly, Morgoth never shows up in the trilogy, but he did make Sauron who he is, just like Hordak and Skeletor, so you could argue it is relevant. Or to use another example, the Emperor is barely there in either A New Hope or Empire Strikes Back, yet he was instrumental in turning Darth Vader to the dark side and the true mastermind behind it all.
Hordak prologue would be best reserved for the movie where he first shows up. Up until then we should just be hinted about something really powerful and evil behind Skeletor, as a sort of sequel tease, but nothing big or explicit enough to steal the spotlight from old skullface. I think MYP did it just as it should be, only they never got the chance for bringing in the Horde.
Last edited by Met-Hild; June 16, 2011 at 05:30pm. Reason: I somehow managed to get the numbers 1 and 2 mixed up...
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2. as I don't like King Greyskull & would like to keep Earth out of this movie also.
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Excellent points. I'd never thought of it quite like that. Though I have to say, it'd be hard to pass up King Grayskull making some kind of appearance in the first film, especially if Dolph is the one playing him.
Maybe it could start like you say, with Randor v Keldor, and we only get some background on King G when Sorceress gives Adam the sword.
I would start the first movie with the completion of Castle Grayskull and King Grayskull dying. Set up Randor as the hero of the first movie fighting a losing battle against Skeletor trying to get the sword of power. Randor can't access it it. But a prophecy tells of a boy who will wield its power, son of a King and a celestial being. The movie ends on a cliffhanger. Randors finds Marleena's spaces ship.
The second movie would be Adam as a teenager and not the son that Randor thought would be the prophesied warrior. He grows up with Teela, mentored by Dunca. Meets the sorceress and discovers the sword of power. He becomes He-Man and wins his first battle against Skeletor.
The third and final movie would be He-Man and Skeletor amassing their own armies and leads into a final battle that ends with He-Man grabbing Skeletor by the eye sockets and ripping his skull off his body, evil energy explodes out scarring He-Man but killing Skeletor. The battle is won. He-Man and Teela rebuild Grayskull into something more livable and put the sword away for the next time evil returns.
The End.
I always imagined this as a trilogy like Lord of the Rings so I would have the first one start with King Grayskull defeating Hordak
Second would begin with Randor defeating Keldor and becoming king
Third would be a bit of a toss up, maybe showing Hordak and the Horde arriving on Etheria and conquering the planet or Hordak and Skeletor/Keldor laying seige to Eternos and stealing the baby Adora.
If anything, this movie should be epic spanning many different battles and moments in time in the history of He-Man. That's what I would like to see on screen.
A journey that began long ago in a place neither near nor far
A story of heroes, passed down through the ages
Until now.
This is our story. These are our heroes
One thing I didn't like about the 1987 movie was that it just started without any backstory whatsoever.
I'm not a fan of the 2000x relaunch, but having watched the first episode of the cartoon, I think it should pretty much start in the same way.
Maybe they could do that. Just not in that order. Once they've established He-Man's universe they could do some killer prequels, but the next MOTU movie we see has to be He-Man's story or not at all.
I have a awesome opening scene..You see 2 people running..but all you see are the feet, maybe knee down, jumping running, falling,..then maybe a couple quick back shots..NO faces..NO real clue who they are..
THEN all of a sudden the "bad guy" falls OR maybe comes to the edge of a cliff...You see feet walking up...Camera is still tight..maybe some close up of the eyes of both..THEN "The man" walks up to the bad guy..grabs him by the shirt or armor, lifts him up..camera still close..ANd you here "the man" say.."i catch you around here again,you wont have time to run"..."now,give skeletor my best"...and drops him off the cliff "INTO water"..
THe camera pans out...Circles around him kind of going high in the sky...and "the man" pulls out his sword and changes back to Adam...Then the music hits hard and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE comes up on the screen with huge powerful musical score...
Something like that chills me..and yes..i thought of that all on my own and NO im not screen writer..just an out of work dad of 2..lol
Although I am more of a vintage fan, I think the way the 200x cartoon started was excellent. Although, starting the movie with some narration going over the epic final King Grayskull battle would be sweet, too. The first movie (yes, I want a trilogy) would be He-Man vs. Skeletor. The second movie would be the Snake Men. The third movie would be the Horde, baby.I was thinking about how a MOTU movie would begin. Films like this tend to kick things off with a cool prologue sequence depicting some past event.
If they go with that approach, off the top of my head there are 3 that could be used:
#1
King Grayskull's (final?) battle(s) against evil forces (which is how Marks' script opened)
#2
Randor defeats Keldor (same as the 200X toon)
#3
Marlena crash lands on Eternia, meets Randor
No version has ever opened with #3, and for good reason; Marlena coming from Earth is agonizingly irrelevant to the overall mythology. But it could be an interesting way of initiating us puny Earthlings into the world of Eternia. Maybe
Honestly, I really don't want the movie bogged down with a ton of backstory. Not that they can't reference it later (possibly in a sequel or something), but really we don't need to know the exact origin of the power, itself. IMO too much focus on that just takes away the focus on Adam/He-Man.
All that we need to know is that the power of castle grayskull exists and Adam is some how meant to use it and help protect it from evil. There's no reason to complicate things more than that.
If the first movie is an origin story for how Adam becomes He-Man, that's fine, though I honestly wouldn't mind if they just sort of 'hit the ground running' and just gave a quick explanation of how he came to get the powers (sort of like a more sophisicated version of the old Filmation intro).
Heck, they could do something like this...
____________________________________________
In my head I always pictured the movie beginning with keldor vs randor and getting his face burned. The storyline in my head demands that part to be in the story. Unless Queen Marlena being from earth is relavent to the storyline, it should never come up. I'd imagine the Hordak vs KG scene coming up in a moive when Hordak is released. Since the 200X line I imaged the origin storyline as the basis for the movie.
Out of your three choices I would pick #1. I always thought the Marlena from Earth and crash-landing on Eternia reminded me of the first Planet of the Apes movie. And, I would avoid all references to Earth in a new MotU movie.
But, I would go in a completely different direction from your three choices. I am a big fan of the 200X series, but I prefer the original mini-comics version of MotU. For a new movie, I would start it amongst a tribe of jungle-barbarians like in the first minicomic. One of them is chosen as a new champion of Eternia, that both a Green Goddess and Skeletor seek out. Ancient technology can be found all over Eternia, left over by an ancient civilization that died out long ago in a Great War. The current populace use what tech they can, but mostly use pre-industrial methods to survive. Skeletor's origin would be told in flashbacks when needed.
This could be done on the cheap and still be a great movie. The tough thing I always thought would be difficult to sell in a MotU movie is how a civilization use swords and blasters and ride on beasts and flying vehicles. It doesn't make sense. But done like a post-apocolyptic way (ie MadMax) might be the easiest. The early minicomics did it very well. Filmation did not.
"Everything comes to he who waits."
This always bothers me, the technology in MOTU. Why wouldn't everyone use a blaster instead of a sword?
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So I finally started working on my own He-Man script (for Script Frenzy) and I'm actually toying with the idea of starting with none of those prologues and just diving in head-first into the present day story. All those backstory details do come up over the course of the script (even Marlena from Earth; I think I can use it), but primarily through dialogue.
I think I got the idea watching "Game of Thrones" which also pulls off some expert world building just from characters talking about it. Of course I don't have the advantage of delivering exposition in the presence of naked women, so I'll see how it goes.
eh.. hmmm
I have storyboards,, (just saying)
I suppose the opening credits can start off in space and then it pans down to Eternia and ends in the front part of Castle Grayskull where it says "Directed by_______"
That line is just big enough for my name.
..and I think it opens with a narrative. (by Granamyr)
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