Universal pictures has picked up the rights to develop a movie based on Mattel’s action figure, Major Matt Mason. While another toy movie may not sound like a big deal, with Tom Hanks starring in the movie, it will probably get a lot more attention than the Stretch Armstrong movie.
The toy line originated in 1966; Mason led an astronaut team that worked on the moon and lived in a space station. The toy was a hit in the buildup to the first manned moon mission. Mattel retired the line in the 1970s.
Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce with Graham Yost writing the script.
3 Comments
I’ve never heard of this particular line of toys, so it comes as a surprise to me that some suit actually pitched this idea. Was this ever a big enough cultural phenomenon to make a throwback movie a la Transformers, Speed Racer or GI Joe?
This doesn’t make sense from a business perspective either. Anyone old enough to remember Major Matt Mason toys is older than the demographic sweet spot for a space movie. Their kids are the target, but if the toy was retired in the early 70’s, nobody’s kids know who the heck Matt Mason is either.
Maybe Hollywood is so starved for new ideas that they’re starting to scrounge around looking for ANYTHING to make a movie with? At least it’s not yet another reboot.
I’d suggest to anyone not familiar with the toy to google it and you’ll see all the cool accessories that were available for the line. Growing up, I had the Space Station, Space Sled, Space Crawler, Moon Suit Pak and Uni-Tred w/ Space Bubble. I spent hours of play with the toys and was never bored.
The toy has a nostalgia factor for some adults, obviously, but the big picture is how it evokes the imagination for “realistic” space travel. Something that NASA definitely needs as it tries to get the country interested in a return to the moon by 2018. The best place to start is with todays children.