Tom Hanks is planning to star in a live action toy story. Please note the lack of capitalization on “toy” and “story”.

The movie is called Major Matt Mason, and it’s based on a vintage Mattel action figure which is so vintage that I’ve never heard of it. Of course when I was a kid, if it didn’t transform into a truck or a tyrannosaurus I wasn’t interested. Major Matt Mason wasn’t a transformer, but the leader of an astronaut team working on the moon and living on a space station. The toy line was boxed in the 70s.

Variety says the project is being developed specifically as a star vehicle for Hanks. Exactly how they’ll develop it remains unknown. Will it be a movie about a man playing with toys, or are we talking a straight astronaut movie based on whatever mythology was built up around this Mattel character? I’m hoping for that. It’s been too long since we last shot Tom Hanks into space.