Director Breck Eisner is currently making a Flash Gordon movie based on on the comic strip that began in 1934. Airlock Alpha reports Eisner’s intentions and talks about the business of making remakes.
Now, fresh off of “The Crazies,” director Breck Eisner is prepping to revive “Flash Gordon” for a new generation. With the goal of making it intelligent, edgy and immensely loyal to the original canon, Eisner has no intention of retreading the same ground as those before him. Instead, he will bring the comics to life with the latest technology at his disposal.
“The comic from 1930s was made into serials in the ’50s and ’70s, then the director’s version in the ’80s,” Eisner told Airlock Alpha. “It was campy and the effects were not so good – this version is in no way a remake. Our version goes back to strips from ’30s and we will update those and shoot the movie as if the strips were drawn today. It will be an action and adventure sci-fi.
So no cool soundtrack by Queen? 🙁
Hawkmen! DEEEYIIIVE!
wow, making a movie that’s actually true to the source material??? I would love to see that! I hope some producer doesn’t turn it into Space-Matrix-Vampires along the way.
Flash Gordon strips of the ’30s have long needed to be turned into a movie. To work, the women’s styles and costuming must remain true!
There were no Flash Gordon serials made in the ’50s and ’70s however. I hope Eisner can get the rest of FG history more straight than that, or the movie’s sunk!
I actually really like the 80’s Flash Gordon movie. There was also a 90’s cartoon series that I remember being pretty good too (although I haven’t seen it in years so it might not stand up so well now).
I haven’t read Archie in forever but it seems it was a sexless strip. The sex in the strip was just dates at the malt shop, if I remember. Maybe there was kissing too, I’m not sure.
My basic curiosity is how are they going to demonstrate that this character is gay? If gay people are like everybody is like everyone else, will he and other characters just talk about it? Will he be dating? Will there be more than that?
It might be too serious a topic to introduce into a lighthearted children’s cartoon strip for 7-10 year olds. Is it appropriate for the target audience?
oops wrong thread.
So they are casting Archie in the lead of Flash Gordon? Wait … wha …? 😉
So I wonder how long it will be before the pro industry brings back “Flesh Gordon”… the only porn I’ve ever seen that had similar production values to the source material. 😛
They just need to update it so it looks like “the strips were drawn today”? Then what you’ve got is a contemporary take on a retro looking space fable…I would prefer that Alex Raymond and Al Williamson’s artwork be the look that inspires the film, not somebody else’s re-interpretation of what it might look like if they were redrawing a version and re-imagining the world of Flash Gordon. It’s a retro character because it’s a creation of the 30’s…otherwise it’s not the character. That’s my 2 cents.
Pete,
Couldn’t agree more…anytime a modern filmaker tries to ‘improve’ classic material they invariably wind up totally transforming into a modern day hip-wannabe pretender.
Remember the Alec Baldwin version of ‘The Shadow’, where they tried to show the Shadow as invisible but interacting with objects like water or knives? They totally ruined it because they had no respect for the material or the fact audiences don’t need to be spoonfed like idiots with excessive CGI.
I fear the same fate awaits Mr. Gordon. But then, what could be worse than making him a QB for the NY Jets? Yecchhh..