John Chu Talks About His Approach To HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

A few months back, GI Joe: Retaliation director John Chu was in talks to direct another 1980s toy-inspired film – He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe. Since then, he has taken the job and has turned his eye towards how he plans to approach the material.

Talking with Celebuzz, Chu touched upon the process he is going through to bring the film to the screen.

I feel like there’s a lot of room to crack open the Masters of the Universe story. We are still in our process and I think we have some great seeds planted but making one of these types of movies RIGHT takes a lot of tonal tightroping so we’re just going to play for the next several months. Play with designs, play with the characters, try new things, maybe go too far on some things and pull back. The process is really important to find where the right line is so we can land right on it. I think that’s what can dig out the properties full potential for a cinematic rebirth.

Chu also talked about how the script that he was presented from Sony Pictures was what sold and energized him on the idea of doing the film –

I was approached about doing a Masters of the Universe movie and while at first I was skeptical, I read the script and I was blown away. I had no idea what to expect but it was such a fresh, UNEXPECTED approach I was immediately intrigued. I never expected to connect on a human level to a MOTU movie but I really plugged in emotionally. That alone, got me excited to see what we could do with the property.

MOTU is such a challenging puzzle to make into a movie that works to a contemporary audience but the script seemed to really crack it for me. I think people are really going to be surprised at the rich story we have the opportunity to tell in this world. Where you think MOTU goes left, the script goes right and it was just very clear to me this was something very special.

While I admire his enthusiasm, I have to reserve judgement on whether he is a good choice for the film until after GI Joe: Retaliation comes out next spring. Prior to tackling GI Joe, Chu’s filmography was dominated by music and dance related films like Step Up 2: The Streets and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. And while a good action sequence needs a certain rhythm and pace, it remains to be seen if Chu is able to translate that from one genre to another.