The first time Cinema Blend reported on the possibility of a new Masters of the Universe movie it was 2004 and John Woo was inexplicably signed to put it together. That obviously went nowhere, but every couple of years someone else thinks they’ve got the power of Greyskull and they give it a go. The latest attempt will be written by Mike Finch and Alex Litvak, the writers behind the upcoming Robert Rodriguez produced Predators.

THR says they’ve been hired by Columbia, which picked up the rights to the franchise this fall. This is their first step in getting something done with it. If you’re a He-Man fan, don’t hold your breath. We’ve been down this road before.

Still if Predators is half as good as it looks, Finch and Litvak could be the ideal screenwriters for this story. Assuming of course they’re planning on going the gritty, action route and not the silly, cartoony, Dolph Lundgren route.

In its initial form, as launched in 1982 in comic form and continued in the mid-80s cartoon series, Masters is the story of a kid named Prince Adam living on a barbaric alien planet. He lives a double life courtesy of a magic sword which, turns him into the uber-warrior He-Man. I’ve always thought on film it should be kind of like Conan the Barbarian, except with alien technology and a lot more special effects sorcery mixed in. If that’s where Columbia plans to take it, guys who wrote Predators should be able to handle that.