Getting any project off the launchpad in Hollywood can be tough – even if you’re a successful, Oscar-winning actor-director-producer-writer. Just ask Tom Hanks, who happens to be all of those things, and a classic typewriter fan. He’s been trying to get a film based on the Major Matt Mason astro-toys going for a few years now. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Hanks is now trying to drum up more funding.
The Mason line launched in 1966, at the height of the space race and just three short years before man made it to the Moon itself. While the success of the toy was short-lived (it was discontinued in the mid 1970s), it clearly struck a chord with the likes of Hanks.
He signed on back in 2009 to star in the film for Universal, agreeing to produce and bashing out a draft of the script with Justified show-runner Graham Yost that, despite the toy line boasting a built-in bad guy with Captain Lazer (boo! Hiss! Etc.), will primarily be a tale of survival on the moon (**Cast Away **in spaaaaace?)
But since then, it’s languished in development and now Hanks, director Robert Zemeckis (who has officially signed on) and Universal are taking their pitch for the movie to the American Film Market to drum up much-needed international financing. It seems like an unusual step, but perhaps in this post-Larry Crowne world, even Tom Hanks needs a rocket boost from time to time.