10 Things You Didn't Know About Masters Of The Universe

6. The Film Is Indirectly Responsible For Superman IV

Cannon Films, led by producers Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus, had started to make a name for themselves in the USA in the early 1980s. Israeli cousins, Golan and Globus had pronounced themselves in the film world by producing movies for cheap and selling them for millions, while making their hyperbolic advertising an art form. By 1985, they had a swanky new building in the US, and begun to spread their wings into bigger territory, buying the rights to Marvel (Spider-Man was mooted, Captain America was released in 1990 when they tried to restart the company), Superman and Masters of the Universe. By 1987, they had settled on taking the summer by storm with MOTU and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. But just as they seemed destined to become Hollywood€™s new powerhouse, they got too big for their boots. They soon learnt the hard way that their business model just didn€™t work for big productions, and were on the verge of collapse. Money was running thin, and while they had set Superman IV€™s budget at $36 million, it was slashed in half, mainly so they could pay the cast and crew of MOTU, or they would see their slim hopes of surviving sink without a trace. And while Superman IV is flawed in many, many ways, all of those dodgy effects and shoddy CGI are almost a direct result of MOTU being made simultaneously. And because of this, while having very honest intentions to entertain, both the films failed, and ultimately saw the death of Cannon.