Tom Hanks is a space ranger & a toy!

Universal are launching Tom Hanks into space again. The Apollo 13 star will play Major Matt Mason, in a live action adaptation of the famous 60's Mattel action figure, which for a while was as cool as Buzz Lightyear. Graham Yost, the scribe who helped craft the Hanks produced mini-series From Earth to the Moon, is writing the screenplay. Mason's storyline was that he worked as an astronaut on the moon and lived in a space station. The figure was popular throughout the early space race and the buildup to the first man on the moon mission but he was unloved soon after and Mattel retired the figure in the 70's.

By the sounds of Variety's article, Hanks was something of a fan of the toy and came armed with his own set of figures to the early meetings. Now is this going to be adapted as a comedy or a serious bit of man isolation away from Earth, like the classic Robinson Crusoe on Mars? Sam Rockwell's Sundance fav Moon might have beaten them to that punch and given Hanks' desire to do anything BUT serious lately (the most serious being him trawling around Europe looking for libraries as Robert Langdon), this surely is going to be a small comedic fare? Still it's pretty cool to think Hanks is going to space again...