10 Things You Didn't Know About Masters Of The Universe
3. The Final Sword Battle Was Almost Never Shot
We've already touched upon some of the horrid issues surrounding the film in terms of Cannons financial standings at the time of the films production, but even outside of the difficulty in paying the staff, they were insistent on many cuts to the movie. As production was coming to an end, all that was left was the final sword fight between He-Man and Skeletor. However, just as they reached the last few days, Cannon shut down production, using sheets of paper to cover cameras and usher out the crew. Director Goddard knew this may happen, and so as they shot the sword/staff clash just prior to the fight, he asked the DOP Hanania Baer to pull all the light from the set, allowing him to finish the film however he needed in the created dark void (hence why the sequence is in darkness, bar a colour wheel behind the actors). A couple of months later, Cannon allowed for one days shooting, and rather than the huge sequence that was planned utilising William Stouts up-and-down throne-room design, Goddard and co had to choreograph a rushed-through fight, as well as reshaping Skeletors death, as he was supposed to fall through the Great Eye opening, rather than the bottomless pit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ceERPc3pyw Even before they were allowed to finish the sequence, and indeed complete the film, Goddard had stated that producers Golan and Globus had told him that finishing the fight didnt really matter: theyll just fightand then we'll fade out. Upon reading that, you can kind of grasp just how haphazard Cannon were in the 1980s, and why they had the problems that ultimately derailed them.
Lover of Batman, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christopher Nolan and Will Ferrell. Sucker for comic-book movies, indies, Jennifer Lawrence, tea and Tottenham.
Favourite films: Terminator 2, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Masters of the Universe, Dumb and Dumber, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Sideways, American Psycho, Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lost In Translation.
