Tom Hanks is ‘Major Matt Mason’

Universal is developing a feature film based on the 1960’s action figure, ‘Major Matt Mason.’ Â  The film will serve as a starring vehicle for Tom Hanks with Graham Yost (‘Speed’ and ‘Mission to Mars’) acting as screenwriter.

Introduced in 1966 by Mattel, Major Matt Mason was an astronaut who lived and worked on the moon. Â  The crew he led (the “Men in Space”) were Sgt. Storm, Doug Davis, and Lt. Jeff Long. Â  While working on the moon, the “Men in Space” encountered strange, alien races.

Hanks’ Playtone Pictures will produce the film. Â  Hanks and Yost have worked together before on a space-related project. Â  Yost served as supervising producer and writer of two episodes of “From the Earth to the Moon”, the HBO mini-series executive produced by Hanks.

The onslaught of feature films based on toys is coming with ‘He-Man’, ‘Hot Wheels’, ‘Stretch Armstrong’, ‘Monopoly’, ‘Ouija’, and ‘Candyland’ already in the works.

Source: Variety