Amazon’s Masters Of The Universe film may finally have a director, with Bumblebee and Kubo And The Two Strings’ Travis Knight said to be in ‘final negotiations.’
Tinseltown trade outlets often talk about actors and filmmakers ‘circling’ movie projects and deals, as though they’re little kestrels hovering about looking for their lunch.
The kestrel in question here is Travis Knight, who most recently directed the Transformers spin-off Bumblebee for Paramount Pictures. According to Deadline’s exclusive, Knight’s in “final talks” with Amazon MGM Studios to direct the latest film adaptation of Masters Of The Universe, based on the 1980s animated series and toy line of the same name.
Knight clearly has strong ideas for the film, with Deadline’s sources saying the filmmaker showed up at the studio’s offices with a presentation which laid out his take on He-Man. That presentation impressed Amazon MGM bosses enough that they’ve made an offer – albeit one that hasn’t yet been formally closed at the time of writing.
Son of Nike co-founder Phil, Travis Knight was previously best known for his work in stop motion animation, having co-founded the studio Laika in 2005. The wonderful Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls were the first features from the studio (Knight was producer and lead animator on those), while Kubo And The Two Strings served as Knight’s directorial debut in 2018.
After making the leap to live-action (albeit with lots of CGI) with Bumblebee in 2018, Knight then returned to stop motion with Wildwood, a fantasy adventure featuring the voices of Carey Mulligan, Jacob Tremblay and Akwafina, among others. That one’s due out in 2025, which potentially means Knight won’t be embarking on his Masters Of The Universe film for a while yet.
It’s not like the latest take on Masters Of The Universe hasn’t had a long and storied history behind it already. A version of the project was in the work at Netflix for some time, before the streaming giant gave up, scrapped it, and sold the rights to Amazon. In November 2023, it was said that Adam and Aaron Nee, who directed action comedy The Lost City, were making it, with Kyle Allan set to play good-hair-day barbarian, He-Man.
It now looks as though the brothers Nee are out and Knight is in, which sounds faintly Pythonesque now we’ve typed it. There’s now word yet whether Kyle Allen (last seen in Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting In Venice) is still playing He-Man.
We’ll bring you more as we get it.
