Here's a little secret that not a lot of people know about me: my first fandom was He-man.

Okay, okay, stop snickering. I'm waiting ... are you done laughing yet?

I was eight or nine years old. But for a few years I was obsessed with the show. I wrote He-man fanfic, and told myself even more He-man stories in my head. The Sorceress and Adam and Teela and Man-at-Arms all played out complicated childhood soap operas in my imagination -- of course, I was the star of the show, and at that age, I didn't even bother to create a Mary Sue. I was just me in the stories.

It's probably a good thing the Internet didn't exist then, or there would be embarassing fanfics of my turning Skeletor good by being kind to him floating around out there in the wilds of the internet. For. Real.

Anyway, He-man -- as campy and goofy as it was in retrospect -- will always have a place in my heart.

And so, I've been watching the news about a movie in the very early stages of planning. A script has been turned in. Of course, a script does not a movie make; there are plenty of screenplays that never get beyond the "stuck in a filing cabinet in storage" stage of things.

However ... I'm really optimistic about the odds of a He-man movie. Hero movies and fantasy are all sorts of hot right now. For awhile, I was seeing a movie every weekend this summer, and I don't think I saw a single movie that wasn't either a movie about a hero with special powers, or a fantasy movie, or both. He-man has both a "hero movie" and a "fantasy story" potential. Additionally, has huge amount of name recognition: it'll practically do its own publicity, between the fans who remember the story from their childhood and the people going, "Snicker, snicker, did you hear they're turning He-man into a movie? Snicker."

So, I think the odds are that we'll see a He-man story sooner rather than later. Therefore, the planned movie -- Grayskull: Masters of the Universe -- is being added to my 'watch list' for movies I expect to actually happen in the next few years.

This is not the first He-man movie, of course. There was a somewhat brainless but passably entertaining live action movie made in 1987 that was not only low-budget to start with, but the studio ran out of money three days before the filming was to be completed and the last few scenes had to be shot in a rushed and abbreviated manner.

However, the new movie will likely have a very different feel. According to El Mayimbe of Latinoreview.

com, who's read the script, the scriptwriter Justin Marks takes the He-man story a lot more seriously than the cartoons or the first movie did. It's an origins story (a la Batman Begins) about He-man and Skeletor's beginnings and where the sword came from. No planet Primus, thankfully. No Orko, either.

He also indicates there's absolutely no humor in it -- which does make me question how the story will play out. Even the darkest shows need moments of laughter to lighten the mood for a bit. And He-man, at its core, is about a guy wearing a fur loincloth, swinging a great big sword, and fighting a dude with the corny name of Skeletor. He has a magic cat, and friends that include Teela -- who was wearing a metal bikini long before Xena ever swung onto the screen -- and a sorceress who talks to him telepathically. And he has a sister who has a flying magic horse and lives on another world.

And we're supposed to take this completely seriously?

Getting rid of Orko does not negate the fact that the man has a green magic tiger for a sidekick. The cat talks. Said cat is scared of his own shadow. Until, of course,  He-man waves a sword in the air, gets struck by lightning, and then turns Cringer into Battlecat, of course. Then Battlecat kicks butt.

Okay, okay. It may well work out even if they play the story as a completely straightlaced drama. Helping things along from a commercial success standpoint, I would not at all be surprised to see He-man done as a summer blockbuster, a la 300, which would mean the special effects should be above par, they'll probably cast a big-name actor -- or possibly an attractive underwear model -- as He-man, and round out the rest of the cast with gorgeous screen candy other talented actors as well. The plot will most likely make sense (at least in a general way), and it'll have fantasy and magic and good will defeat evil and badness in a great and triumphant display of fireworks and explosions. And Skeletor will fall off a high tower at the end ... no, wait, that's a Disney trope.

Ahh, but will it be He-man? Without the camp and the humor and Orko (okay, I hated Orko even as a kid; they can get rid of him!) ... is it the same thing? Or is it just a random barbarian-fights-a-bad-dude summer movie, with the He-man name tacked on because the name recognition will draw in all of us thirty-somethings (and the children of thirty-somethings) who grew up with the show?

I dunno. I think the movie has the potential to be very good, very bad, or simply unrecognizable as "He-man." And I suspect it will happen within the next few years. The timing's right.

And because it has the chance to fall under the category of 'very good' I'm adding it to our watch list for this site. If you subscribe to the feed for this category we'll keep you updated on new developments on the movie.