Major Matt Mason Movie With Tom Hanks

I'm going to post this news on both of my blogs.  I am so totally geeked out over the POSSIBILITY of this even happening!  

Universal and actor Tom Hanks have optioned the rights from Mattel for their 1960's era action figure Major Matt Mason. 

This project is designed to be a "star vehicle" for actor Tom Hanks (Apollo 13).  Script will be written by Graham Yost.  Playtone partner Hanks and Gary Goetzman will be the producers.

For those who do not know about Mattel's Man In Space Program, otherwise known as Major Matt Mason; a American team of astronauts lead my the good Major in the white spacesuit.  The toy line first appeared in 1966 and was a 'major' hit in the massive buildup for the real manned moon missions.  Major Matt Mason toyline was retired in the early 1970s.

It was reported that Mattel executives Tim Kilpin and Barry Waldo came to the Playtone meeting with samples of the action figure and some of the gear that went with it.  It was also reported that Tom Hanks arrived with his own Major Matt Mason figure.  

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Ref. Scifiwire.com news item posted 03/25/2009.  This is the link for it. ( http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/universal-to-adapt-matt-m.php)

Major Matt Mason - What Space Adventure Should Have Been Like

I make no bones about how old I am getting. I'm 49 years old. As I close in on the half century mark, one tends to think back to one's youth.

Here lately, I've been thinking about that old Buck Rogers In the 25th Century tv show with Gil Gerard and even odder - of another toy line that Mattel put out back in the good old 1960s at the height of the Space Race: Major Matt Mason!

I've added a link to a webblog on Major Matt Mason to my links list so check it out. If one is into Stargate SG-1 trivia, Colonel Carter as a young girl played with Major Matt Mason instead of Barbie.

Check out the image I found on the web. Its the cover to a toy catalog that Mattel put out for the Major Matt Mason line. You see the good Major in his white spacesuit on his space sled flying past you in the foreground. In the background you can see the space crawler and the amazing two to three foot tall space station playset. That was the most amazing toy of the entire line was that space station. You can find YouTube videos of the old tv commercials that Mattel put out. The figure had a internal wire armature that was easly broken after years (or sometimes, just months of hard play).

Taking a quick looks see thru the different MMM website tonight, Mattel is taking back its creation from some people who got ahold of the creative license to Major Matt Mason when Mattel wasn't paying attention to such details. A part of me hopes that Mattel will re-launch the Major Matt Mason figure line using better technology (no more internal wires to break, hint, hint). With our slow pace return back to the moon with the Constellation/Aries Project - and the (Not) Space Race with a emerging China and India; the need for a new Major Matt Mason to inspire a new generation of American children to become scientists is sorely needed.

Which in a way brings us full circle back to Buck Rogers. No cash for the space program - no Buck Rogers (to borrow that line from the movie "The Right Stuff." ) But I am hearing that it might be reivived as a movie project for release in 2010 or 2011. On a personal note, I hope that this new Buck Rogers is treated the same way that the new Battlestar Galactica was done.