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Flash Gordon back on Track
It looks like that forgotten reboot project Flash Gordon has picked up steam again. Seems this week is all about those movies they forgot to follow up on getting news. Well two people you have never heard of managed to get Sony to sign them on to write the script, and Hearst no longer has the rights so Sony is running with it!
“Flash Gordon” centers on a young polo player who is kidnapped and taken to the distant planet Mongo, where he and companions Dale Arden and Hans Zarkov embark on a series of adventures fighting a ruler named Ming the Merciless.Sony’s “Flash,” a live-action film, follows in a 75-year tradition across many media for what began life as Alex Raymond’s comic strip; the property was a movie serial in the 1930s, a Sam Jones-toplined feature in 1980 and a recent Sci Fi Channel series.
Out of a lot of the pulp sci-fi out there I have never been a fan of Flash Gordon. I hope what happens here is much like Battlestar Galactica reboot, where they ditch all the camp and cheese and give us a solid enjoyable flick.
My big concern is the two writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. I had never heard of them, so Google to the rescue! Nothing outside a mention that the same team will bring us Dracula Year Zero. Which I find very little about short of a director announcement.
I am all for the little guy getting a foot in the door. And honestly Flash Gordon might be a sleeper hit, but unless they work some serious magic I am not getting too excited about it.
What a great idea, i mean that Flash Gordon tv series was just soooo popular.
Can they use the same soundtrack that Queen did back in the day?
LOL Mendicant! Possible mistake in the Flash TV series, hiring Eric Johnson to play Flash…Who? EXACTLY…
However, I love the campy 80s version with Queen doing the score and soundtrack.
Especially Princess Aura…Yummy.
DREAM CAST:
Alan Rickman – Ming the Merciless
Brad Pitt – Flash
Angelina Jolie – Dale Arden (WHY NOT!)
Dennis Hopper – Zarkov
Sophie Marceau – Princess Aura
Daniel Craig – Prince Barin (GET IT?)
Brian Blessed – Vultan again!
I was going to mention the Flash Gordon TV series but you guys all beat me to it. I wasn’t around for the original Flash Gordon so I can’t say I know all the lore and mythos very well. I do like the series though, its pretty much a good adventure rush, that I won’t say was better than Stargate. Flash Gordon kind of reminds me of Sliders but I can’t explain why because they don’t have the bit about the vortex between different Earths. Its probably just the chemistry between Flash Gordon and that one alien chic, what’s her name? The redhead who doesn’t have earth manners or customs down? She just smells people and beats them up for her smaller sidekick.
as long as it is better than that awful TV-show i will welcome a new Flash Gordon.
Way, way back when I loved the high camp energy of the Mike Hodges directed film, with Max Von Sydow in perfect casting as Ming. In recent times I got a kick out of hearing dialog spinnets from the film working its way into a electronic music track by the artist known as The Orb…
The film itself had throwbacks to the serials, with art deco rocket ships flying around colored smoke…I couldn’t get into the recent series, which even made the 1980 film look less dated.
Flash Gordon as a polo player, eh? Count me out.
Darren, in the original 1934 comic strips that started this all, Flash was a polo player.
I think in later versions he was a football player to make it more “American”
Just sayin.
DJ Seeley…
The Orb is to Flash Gordon as Eon is to Dune…Know what I’m saying?
Fear is the Mindkiller
Spice
etc…
Any of you guys ever hear about a show called Farscape? It ran from ‘99 to 2003 and it is probably the best science-fiction show produced by Americans. Ever.
It was produced by the Jim Henson Company, so you can guess that the prosthetics and whanot weren’t crap and that the aliens there were more interesting than the bumpy-forehead variety provided by Trek and the puppets better than SG-1. And the writing is often top-notch.
And the show-concept is basically just a smart update of the Flash Gordon concept. Whether it’s by iTunes, Amazon Unbox or grey-market sources, I encourage everyone to track it down and take a look.
It may be making a comeback by 2012. Any Flash Gordon revival is going to have to measure itself against Farscape. Though it was canceled 5 years ago, it’s still the high-water mark for science-fiction.
I would agree if you had said Farscape was the most amusing series, but “best” is hard to define since what made Farscape so enjoyable just wouldnt work with something like Battlestar Galactica, and also wouldnt have worked with a Star Wars show. Thats what made it great. It was entertaining and unique.
There are some Flash parallels since the story revolves mostly around a human flung into an alternate universe and caught up in the galactic struggles, but if Flash felt too much like Farscape, I don’t know that I would be into it.