Looks like Tom Hanks is going to be putting on a space suit again for the first time since Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13. The difference this time around is that the movie won’t be based on a true story, but rather, a Mattel toy line from the 1960s! According to Variety, Hanks is attached to star in a live action movie based on the Major Matt Mason toys, featuring a team of astronauts who work on the moon and live in a space station.

Universal Pictures have hired Graham Yost (Speed, Broken Arrow, Boomtown) to write the script. In addition to his action movie experience, Yost has also written episodes of From the Earth to the Moon, the Tom Hanks-produced HBO series about the Apollo space missions, and also the 2000 Brian De Palma film Mission to Mars. I’m not sure I understand this current wave of movies based on retro toys (last month a Stretch Armstrong movie was also announced). Is this all stemming from the success of Michael Bay’s Transformers? Something tells me there’s a little more behind the widespread appeal of Transformers than just a popular toy line. Either way I’m always down for a movie about astronauts, I’m just curious how to see realistic it will be, or if it will have a fantasy/sci-fi element to it. Thoughts? At least Reed Farrington is excited, right?

Photo credit: John Eaton