Jon Chu On The "Tonal Tightrope" Of Making 'Masters Of The Universe'

So a new He-Man movie is really in development. Why? Great question. The property was never anything other than a method to pander toys — pretty weird, goofy toys, at that.  Yet there is a company ready to pour millions of dollars into revitalizing a sales pitch that is best remembered by guys in the 30 to 40-year old age range. And Jon M. Chu, who made the yet-to-be-released G.I. Joe: Retaliation, is going to direct it. He spoke about his reasons for making the movie, which you can read below.

Celebuzz talked to Chu, who explained the first stage of deciding to take on Masters of the Universe:

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.

He also said "I think the characters are so grounded and layered" and that they make this take feel "like it's a totally different genre" than the previous film based on the toys. In addition, Chu talked about the "tonal tightrope" of the film:

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.

Will this really be some deepy grounded, human take on a giant-muscled guy with a bowl haircut and a cat he rides like a bicycle? Seems unlikely. But the whole Masters of the Universe idea is so wacky that there might be a pretty high "WTF?" factor to get eyes glued to this film. That alone might be enough to answer the question of why this is being made.