Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Flash Gordon

6/24/10 - Breck Eisner spoke to Fear Net about Flash Gordon recently and said he's dedicated to what he considers a dream project but warns fans will have to wait.  "Flash Gordon is a total passion project for me," said Eisner. "We've just extended the option and the studio's very committed in trying to make it happen. It's just a gigantic 3-D experience with years of prep, it's one of those movies you get once in a lifetime to make and for me it's been a passion of mine since I was a kid. If I could pick and just control everything I would love to make Flash Gordon, it's really kind of my dream job, but it's multi-year, in terms of writing and designing."

2/19/10 – SCI FI Wire reported that director Breck Eisner promises that his upcoming new Flash Gordon movie won't be a remake of the campy 1980 version or even the Buster Crabbe serials from the 1930s—and he promises it will be in 3-D.  Eisner is moving forward on his new movie version of the classic sci-fi story. "Flash Gordon is a movie I've been pursuing for years, and I finally was able to orchestrate it going to Sony from Hearst," Eisner said.  Eisner added: "We hired writers a year ago. I've been breaking story with them since I wrapped post on The Crazies. We've got an awesome, very long-form outline that they're now executing a script off of, which I should have in two months or so to the studio." It's unclear as of yet whether Flash Gordon will be Eisner's next movie.  Eisner is a longtime Flash Gordon fan with a strong vision of how Gordon should be brought into modern times.

8/8/08 - Sony has signed writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to write the script for its new take on Flash Gordon, just a few months after winning rights to the classic SF franchise from Hearst, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Flash Gordon centers on the title 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 live-action Flash is the latest incarnation of the 75-year-old franchise, which has been adapted in many media after beginning life as Alex Raymond's comic strip. Flash was a movie serial in the 1930s, a Sam Jones feature film in 1980 and a SCI FI Channel series recently.  The new Flash originally had been set up at Universal, but rights reverted to Hearst's King Features Syndicate after the project sat in development for several years.  Breck Eisner is attached to direct and Neal Moritz to produce, as they were when the project was set up at Universal.

05/21/08 - Columbia may develop a feature-film update and reboot of Flash Gordon and has entered talks to acquire the film rights, with Breck Eisner attached to direct and Neal Moritz set to produce. Eisner also will executive-produce.  Flash originally was a science fiction newspaper comic strip drawn by Alex Raymond in the 1930s, was first adapted to the screen in the form of Buster Crabbe serials and was made into a 1980 film starring Sam Jones.

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