Tom Hanks is teaming back up with director Robert Zemeckis to develop a big screen adaptation of the vintage 1966 sci-fi action figure Major Matt Mason. The movie was first announced back in 2009 with Hanks attached to produce and star, and it's awesome to see that Zemeckis has jumped on board to direct it! Hanks, who is still attached to star in the film, told The Wrap that he "started tinkering with the story after Larry Crowne, and ended up co-writing the script with Graham Yost."
For those of you not familiar, Major Matt Mason was an astronaut who lived and worked on the moon. When introduced in 1966, the figures were initially based on design information found in Life Magazine, Air Force Magazine, Jane's and other aviation and space-interest periodicals. Later, the line would attempt to transition into the realm of science fiction.
Yost had this to say about the story for the film in a previous interview,
The story is set on the moon, near future, and it's a team of people on a base on the moon, on the south pole of the moon. And of course everything goes wrong. There's no bad guys. There's no aliens. Nothing like that. It's just, can you survive? It's really fun, and it's just been a blast working with Tom on that. We had such a good time on 'From Earth to the Moon' that it's sort of like, 'We've got to go back to the moon. Some way, somehow, let's go back to the moon.
I love the concept behind the movie, and seeing all these talented people attached to it is very exciting --especially the Hanks and Zemeckis team-up! They worked together on films such as Forrest Gump, Cast Away and The Polar Express.
The movie is set up at Universal Pictures, but will also be shopped to potential buyers during the run up to the American Film Market. I don't think there will be any issues finding additional funding for the film, especially with the kind of talent attached to it.
What do you all think about Hanks and Zemeckis teaming again up for this sci-fi moon adventure?