"Flash Gordon" — one of the original sci-fi action heroes — has been absent from movie screens for 30 years and largely out of the public consciousness aside from a few attempts to revive the character on television and in comics. In 2008, Breck Eisner — director of "The Crazies" remake which opened last weekend — was signed to helm Gordon's return to film for Sony Pictures.
And while the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie is fondly remembered for its campy tone, Eisner insists that his film will be truer to the comic strip created by Alex Raymond.
"'Flash Gordon' is a project I’ve been pursuing for years, it’s a real passion of mine," explained Eisner during an interview with Movieline. "The writers have been breaking story the past couple of months, and we have a couple months to go until the draft goes into Sony. Assuming they achieve everything we talked about, I think it will be a really great script. It’s not a remake of any movie that’s been done before. Nothing to do with the camp of the ’80s, nothing to do with the serials of the ’50s."
"It’s definitely based on the Alex Raymond strips from the ’30s and ’40s, told from the point of view as if he was redoing the strips today," added Eisner. "The audience that was reading the strips back then was a very different audience that today’s audience. It’s an action-adventure, very dynamic, aggressive, with a really strong central character."
The "Flash Gordon" comic strip was first published in 1934 and followed the titular character who is transported against his will to the planet Mongo where he eventually leads an uprising against the planet's ruler, Ming the Merciless. While the latest "Flash Gordon" movie has been in development for nearly two years, Eisner was quick to note that it may still be a few years away.
"We’re a long way off. It’s a gigantic movie, so these things are tough to get made," related Eisner. "I [mean] 'Crazies' took me years to get made — I can’t imagine a movie of this size. There’s a long way to go. Sony’s got to commit big money to it and love it, and there’s going to be years of prep. It’s a lot of work! But if we can pull it off, I think it would be quite fantastic."
Who would you cast as Flash Gordon in the new film? Which actor can pull off the menace of Ming the Merciless? Land your rockets in the comment section below and let us know what you're thinking or on Twitter!