The director of the upcoming Flash Gordon movie has revealed that the film will be based on the original comic strips, and not the previous film or TV show.
Flash Gordon is arguably one of the biggest icons of the science-fiction genre. Since his creation in the 1930s, our intrepid hero has starred in comics, radio serials, novels, television shows, and films. The last time we saw Flash in a movie, though, was the so-bad-it’s-good film from 1980 directed by Mike Hodges. Breck Eisner, director of the new (3D) Flash Gordon movie, is promising that the 2012 film will be a complete reboot based on the original comics.
In an interview with Airlock Alpha, Eisner explained that the movie is designed to launch a new franchise, and that he plans to base the film on the original comic strips from the 1930s. However, Eisner said that he wants to “update [the comic elements] and shoot the movie as if the strips were drawn today. It will be an action and adventure sci-fi.” So, that means that anything that was unique to the 1980 movie won’t make an appearance, especially the Queen theme song.
“It’ll be a franchise for sure,” he said. “It will be a stand-alone story. It definitely won’t be left open for more, but the ultimate goal is to turn it into a franchise. It will be an origins story for Flash. He’s going to Mongo, he’s gonna save the planet, and it will have a superhero buy-in and will be unique. It is very much a superhero origins story.”
Eisner is hoping his project will have a similar feeling to the hit Battlestar Galactica series that SyFy recently wrapped up. “I was originally involved with Battlestar Galactica and broke the initial script with Ron Moore,” he said. “[He’s] done a great job executing and bringing it up for modern era. He made it edgy and it goes to show that if you have the right DNA in a project, then you can do something amazing.”
Meanwhile, Eisner wants to keep the movie as far as possible from SyFy’s widely-reviled 2007 TV series. “It was crap, total crap,” Eisner said when he was asked about the show. “I watched one episode. I don’t want to look at something like that – it was a real disservice to Flash and nobody watched it. What it did was pollute the Flash Gordon name.”
Eisner’s The Crazies was certainly the best remake of George Romero’s classic horror films that’s come out, and I thought his contribution to Fear Itself was a solid episode. It certainly sounds like the man is taking Flash Gordon in the right direction, but anything not associated with the TV series fits that description.
Source: Airlock Alpha via Blastr
