Warners Does Not Possess The Secrets of Grayskull

By El Mayimbe

El Mayimbe here…

So what is the latest on one of my favorite scripts of the year – Justin Marks’ GRAYSKULL?

Nothing. As it stands, the project is dead at Warner Brothers.

How did it get this way? Here are some of the reasons.

For starters, Warners simply doesn’t get the property and wasn’t high on it to begin with.

The studio gave the execs at Silver Pictures a very small list of A-director names they would consider making the film with, amongst them Doug Liman and Bryan Singer who both passed.
There were some up and coming directors that were gung ho on the script, but the studio wasn’t feeling them.

Another reason and perhaps the biggest was that Navid McIIhargey, the exec who brought in He-Man to Silver Pictures, left the company last month to become a Senior VP at New Regency as reported last month in both trades.

Sources tell me Navid and another exec (who also left Silver) – guys in their thirties who grew up on the property - were the unsung heroes of He-Man and are no longer there doing the day to day to get He-Man over the mountain and get the movie made.

In the Hollywood business culture, once an exec leaves, usually his projects are killed by the new incoming exec.

Even heroes like He-Man need allies and Prince Adam no longer has any at the studio. Sad.
Execs at toy company Mattel are so infuriated at Warners, that they want the property back to take it elsewhere. Mattel’s anger is understandable. No movie equals no toys to make.

I personally don’t get it. You would think with all the money 80s toy properties like Transformers made for Paramount that every studio in town would do the same. Paramount knows better, they got the Transformers sequel and G.I. JOE in the pipeline for next year and Hasbro alone stands to make a king’s ransom on just the toys.

I adore the Grayskull script. It’s one of my favorites for this year which I will be voting for in the upcoming black list for 2008. It really could be another Lord of the Rings combining both mythology and science fiction. The potential is HUGE! You can read my script review HERE.

As a story analyst, it’s comforting when the good scripts in this town get made regardless of the obstacles like another of my favorites script KASHMIR went through. Awesome that KASHMR is finally getting made as announced this week.

GRAYSKULL is another gem which I want to see get made and other fanboys do too. The piles of email I get on this property alone are proof.

Warners should put the project into immediate turnaround because trust me, someone will pick it up.

Stay tuned as more info comes in…

In the meantime, check out my updates on TWITTER.