For me as a kid, He-Man was the holy grail of Saturday morning cartoons. It was at the top of my mom’s list of things I would absolutely not be allowed to watch (I think she was freaked out by Orco) and therefore at the absolute top of my list of things which I would absolutely find a way to watch, even if I had to sneak around her back to do it. In the end, I’m not sure it was worth all the trouble. He-Man doesn’t hold up so well, the whole Castle Grey Skull thing seems nonsensical and silly now, and the idea of a boy turning into a heavily muscled super-warrior has been done before and better.

Yet this is one of the big, 80’s cartoon franchises we’re talking about here and that means Hollywood is hot to make something out of it in the wake of Transformers. It’s been close to becoming a movie before, but He-Man projects have a funny way of fizzling. Maybe this one will flame out too, especially if GI Joe fails to perform next summer, but for now the guys at LatinoReview claim that the latest attempt to make a He-Man movie has a director. That would be He-Man helmer most recently co-directed the best animated movie of 2008, Kung Fu Panda. Suddenly I’m interested.

His name is John Stevenson and he’s never actually done live action before. His background is in animation, working in television before shifting to features. Can he do the same sort of awesome action he pulled off in Kung Fu Panda with live action? Can he actually get this movie made, after so many years of seeing others with bigger Hollywood hammers try and fail? Maybe we’ll get answers, once there’s an official announcement.