New Flash Gordon film views

[Brian Braddock]

I was watchin' the 'Flash Gordon' film the other day (I'm really more of a 'Buck Rogers' fan myself but what the hey?) and I got thinking about the new movie that's meant to be in pre-production (or has the project stalled and I just havent heard?).

We all know that Stephen Sommers of 'the Mummy' and 'Van Helsing' fame bought the rights in 2004 and is supposedly writing the screenplay (it's unknown whether he will direct but after 'Van Helsing', I gotta say, I hope he decides to 'sit this one out' and give it to a director who can exhibit a little restraint), but I'm interested in getting peoples views on the film, specifically the casting, the director, storylines, the tone of the film, special fx houses etc (or whatever else).

This thread is to get everyone's views and ideas.


As the thread starter, I guess I'll go 1st.

For Director;

I'd like to see someone with proven exprerience in this genre - I can name a few directors who've knocked out some absolute bonafide sci-fi classics who I'd like to see helm the movie but wouldnt be right for one reason or another (or wouldnt be able to do it), so I gotta admit, I'm stumped. I went through my dvd collection and came up with names such as:-

Paul Verhoeven (Robocop and Starship Troopers),
Ridley Scott (Bladerunner),
John McTiernan (Predator)
Given their 1930's serial homages - Speilberg (ET, Close Encounters, WotW, A.I, etc) or Lucas (Star Wars)?
James Cameron (Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, the Abyss)
Joss Whedon (Serenity)
Alex Proyas (I,Robot)

Can anyone think of anyone else who'd they'd like to see helm? (and please, don't suggest Paul Anderson!)


As for casting;

For Flash, I think Matthew McConaughey would be a good pick (I know he has his critics and people on here are tired of him being suggested for damn near everthing, but for this role especially I think he'd be perfect).

A large enough name to put bums on seats but not detract from the film, leading man good looks, naturally blonde hair (in your face Sam Jones, lol), can act and has a good physique (if youre into that kinda thing). Plus he looks, to me, like how Alex Raymond depicted Flash (and also reminds me a little of Buster Crabbe too); We just gotta get him to stop getting high andplaying the bongos at 2 in the morning with no clothes on!! :-

What about the casting of Dale Arden?

Me? After a bit of consideration, I'd go for Rachel Weisz:-

Again, well - known (but not too well known), a decent actress, has worked with Sommers on 2 films already (so already well-versed in working with special effects, also see 'Constantine') and dare I say it, is a bit 'fuller' that some of the waifs that are in movies nowadays (i.e, Kate Bosworth), and so again, lends herself to the Alex Raymond depiction.

Next, is the big one for me - the casting of Ming.

Now these are some really big shoes to fill. Both Charles Middlleton and Max von Sydow were great as Ming. The role need's an actor able to be able convey ruthlessness and have an air of authority (from both body language and a commanding voice), plus he has to have the right facial characteristics for Ming - a bald head is a plus, but i'd say it's the cheekbones, nose and jaw that are the key areas.

So, I'd go for Patrick Stewart:-

<Yeah, I know it's a cliche to cast this guy in yet another S.F. movie but I really can't think of anyone else more suited to the role of Ming (i'm sure many of you can offer a better alternative, if so, by all means, please feel welcome to do so, that's what this threads for)>

What about the rest of the casting? Dr. Zarkov, Princess Aura, Klytus, Prince Barin or Vultan?

Anyone any ideas?

What about the tone of the movie?

Should it be campy like the movie? Serious sci-fi or more akin to the tone of the serials (and 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones')?

My view is definately NO CAMP. Please god, NO CAMP! I'd lean more towards the serious with slight injections of humour (more akin to 'SW', 'IJ' or more recently, 'Serenity').

Look of the film?

Should it be ultra modern or should it have a look harking back to the 30's?

Again, a mix. Modern and futuristic design but with art deco styling thrown in for good measure as a homage to the source material (Funnily enough, See 'Flesh Gordon' as an example).

Special effects house?

These days everyone seems to be crowing over WETA (Yeah, King Kong was amazing) but I've got old - school love for ILM (no - one does space 'stuff' like they do). However, there are a lot of other good effects housed out there so anyone got any suggestions?

Storylines?

Again, I'm more of 'Buck Rogers' fan so I'll admit my 'Flash Gordon' shortcomings and say I know little, if anything, of storylines outside of the movie and the 'Defenders of the Earth' cartoon (lol).

Any harcore fans out there have any preference to stories they wanna see? or do they just want a 'reboot' or a 're-imagining' (or any other buzz word that's popular at the moment)?



I definatlely look forward to reading your views.

 

[Catman]

For Flash, I think Matthew McConaughey would be a good pick (I know he has his critics and people on here are tired of him being suggested for damn near everthing, but for this role especially I think he'd be perfect).

I like EVERYTHING you said except the above! McConaughey would suck in the role. Why? Because McConaughey will play, well, McConaughey! I want someone who could play Flash Gordon and not themselves.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Thanks - That's a fair point regarding MM tho- as I said, he does have his critics.

You got anyone in mind for the lead role yourself, CM?

 

[Catman]

You got anyone in mind for the lead role yourself, CM?

I haven't really thought about it. When I do I'll get back to you.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Cool, CM. Look forward to it.

 

[The Phantom]

I had a thread talking about this a while back, lemme see if I can dig up some old casting suggestions I made.

 

[deathshead2]

The Flash Gordon movie I don't think its going to happen so its dead in the water. But Sci-fi channel is getting alot of great people togeter to right a show bible for a new tv series.

 

[Brian Braddock]

I had a thread talking about this a while back, lemme see if I can dig up some old casting suggestions I made.

Man, that'd be cool if you could.

It'd be real interesting.

EDIT:- I found the thread, Phantom. Interesting that a couple of other people had previously thought of MM.

But Ashton Kutcher?.....................'Aw Hell no!!!!'

I liked the suggestion of Oldman as well.

 

[Brian Braddock]

The Flash Gordon movie I don't think its going to happen so its dead in the water. But Sci-fi channel is getting alot of great people togeter to right a show bible for a new tv series.

That's unfortunate.

I do haveta admit, I'd prefer to see it up there on the big screen as opposed to TV (mainly because a TV show means a smaller budget and lesser known actors in the roles, as well as cheaper effects) - although, there's much more room for story arcs and character development with TV.

But hey, beggars can't be choosers.

 

[Lord Blackbolt]

I don't know...I think Ben Kingsly would make a good Ming as well.

 

[SolidSnakeMGS]

I was thinking about Flash Gordon myself. TV is the way to go. Get with a network like Fox or HBO that's willing to throw some serious money into it and make it a series. There is plenty of story for it to last several seasons. Nowadays, movie adaptations usually fail to nail the spirit of the source, and I fear that is what would happen with Flash Gordon.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=7231

Breck Eisner to Direct Flash Gordon
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
May 20, 2008


Sony's Columbia Pictures is in early talks to acquire the film rights for a big-screen adaptation of Flash Gordon that Breck Eisner would direct and Neal Moritz would produce. Eisner would also executive produce, says The Hollywood Reporter. The trade says:

"Flash" was originally a science fiction newspaper comic strip drawn by Alex Raymond in the 1930s and was created to compete with another sci-fi strip, "Buck Rogers." The strip was first adapted to the screen via Buster Crabbe serials and made into a lavish 1980 film starring Sam Jones but remembered more for its Queen score.

Flash was a sports player who travels to the planet Mongo with his lady love, Dale Arden, and the mad scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov. There, they discover a world ruled by Ming the Merciless and meet strange inhabitants such as the Hawkmen and the Sharkmen.

There are no writers on board the project yet.

 

[Riven]

For Flash, I think Matthew McConaughey would be a good pick (I know he has his critics and people on here are tired of him being suggested for damn near everthing, but for this role especially I think he'd be perfect).

You might get your wish, since Breck Eisner, the director now attached to the new Flash Gordon film, already made Sahara with McConaughey in the lead...

 

[X-Maniac]

This movie has to be played in a deadly serious way. No hammy humour. The 1930s/1940 serials are the best, and they didn't give us cheese - they gave us the best they could offer at the time. No silly humour. Those serials had mood and atmosphere. I don't want to see directors and actors taking the piss out of the story; if they can't take it seriously, they shouldn't be there in the first place.

 

[Brian Braddock]

You might get your wish, since Breck Eisner, the director now attached to the new Flash Gordon film, already made Sahara with McConaughey in the lead...

Hmmmm, interesting.

I could live with MM not getting Cap. America if it meant he was to play Flash Gordon; it would cushion the blow sumwhat.

And, X-Maniac, a definite 'agree' about the tone of the movie; sure, there'll probably some humour, given the franchise's roots but taking a real serious approach to the material is definately the way to go. I'm thinking 'Firefly' here - that struck just the right balance.

 

[green]

Cant be any worse than that awful sci-fi tv series.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

^Ditto.

 

[The Lizard]

Cant be any worse than that awful sci-fi tv series.

Indeed. Ugh - I can't even sit through an episode of that boring, Mongo-looks-like-Canada show.

The 1979 Filmation cartoon is still the best adaptation of the original Flash Gordon comic strips to date. I would use that as a template.

But then, we are dealing with Breck Eisner, the guy who directed the dippy movie Sahara and.....not much else. I'm not super optimistic at this point.

 

[TheVileOne]

Scribes Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless are set to write Flash Gordan. The two writers most recently worked on Dracula Year Zero and Zack Snyder's Cobalt 60.

Breck Eisner (Sahara) is still set to direct the film.

Credit: Hollywood Reporter

Flash Gordon is doomed. I thought after Sahara, Mikey Eisner Jr. would never work in this town again.

This could be just as bad as Sci-Fi, which totally whizzed on everything. One of the worst TV casts I've ever seen. Actors that were just painful to watch. Terrible stories and setting and production values.

 

[chaseter]

Flash Gordon is doomed. I thought after Sahara, Mikey Eisner Jr. would never work in this town again.

This could be just as bad as Sci-Fi, which totally whizzed on everything. One of the worst TV casts I've ever seen. Actors that were just painful to watch. Terrible stories and setting and production values.

Everything about that show was awful I watched one episode and it totally crapped all over Hawkman That show sucks and Flash Gordon was never a really interesting character anyways.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I'm all for this, I love Flash.

 

[Gabe99]

Steven E. de Souza Talks Commando 2, Sgt. Rock, the Flash Gordon Movie You May Never See, and Much More!

What&#8217;s happening with your Flash Gordon script?

Flash Gordon was being fast-tracked to get made around 1997. It was a Jon Peters and Peter Guber production, but they left Sony in a famous kerfuffle. The studio redeveloped the script so that the aliens invade Earth, and Flash Gordon was a fighter pilot. It became kind of like Independence Day. It&#8217;s the complete opposite of what Flash Gordon should be! Later, I heard that Breck Eisner resurrected my script and that it was back on.

But then John Carter came along and now Flash Gordon is probably dead for ten years. Anybody who opens that script will go, &#8220;This is just like John Carter!&#8221; For better or for worse, there are a lot of similarities between Flash Gordon and John Carter. The problem with John Carter was very simple. Alfred Hitchcock said a long time ago, &#8220;You can&#8217;t put a flashback inside of a flashback.&#8221; It&#8217;s like a joke. That&#8217;s what they do in Wayne&#8217;s World. I don&#8217;t know if they actually designed it that way or if the science fiction scene right up in front was a last, desperate move in post production to get the audience some sci-fi up front so they didn't have to wait forty minutes to get to Mars.

In any event, the failings of John Carter were not due to the material or the presentation. It was the chronology of the first forty or so minutes, because when the movie finally caught up to its opening scene &#8212; the attack on Deja Thoris&#8217; flagship &#8212; a general audience unfamiliar with the book would completely fall out of the movie, as they attempted to process a scene which until now they thought was a flash forward &#8212; but was, in fact, yet another flashback, taking place before the first flashback (the reading of the diary) but after the second one (the Western sequence)! Mainstream viewers had to stop in their seats and take out notepads to figure out the timeline &#8212; it was like Memento! I don&#8217;t know if it was written that way or edited that way, but it&#8217;s a shame, because if it wasn&#8217;t for that we&#8217;d probably be making Flash Gordon right now, and they&#8217;d be making John Carter 2.

John Carter isn&#8217;t really that bad, but calling it &#8220;John Carter&#8221; and not &#8220;Warlords of Mars&#8221; or something&#8230;

Well, the reason that happened, sometimes studio executives, they get into kind of like a groupthink, and they decided that a movie they had made two years earlier, Mars Needs Moms, failed because "Mars" was in the title, and that people rejected the movie because of that. Not because they bought a famous children&#8217;s book and then they changed the art design. Mars Needs Moms is by Berkeley Breathed, the Bloom County guy, and when they made the movie it didn&#8217;t look like the book! That&#8217;s insane! It&#8217;s a picture book! Can you imagine making a Dr. Seuss movie, and not having it look like a Dr. Seuss book?

It was like how Beverly Hills Cop 3 originally had this thing where he takes his niece to Disneyland and then sees someone get murdered there. Eddie Murphy had done this movie called The Distinguished Gentleman where there was a little girl in the movie. That movie failed, so the word came down about BH3: &#8220;lose the niece.&#8221; So now things got more convoluted about how he got to Disneyland in the first place. Distinguished Gentleman didn&#8217;t fail because it had a cute kid in it, but all anybody sees is some outlier to say &#8220;that&#8217;s why it went wrong!&#8221; We can&#8217;t call John Carter &#8220;Princess of Mars&#8221; because the word &#8220;Mars&#8221; is box office poison! Mars Attacks failed and Mars Needs Moms failed...no more proof is needed!

 

[Airwings]

Peter Stormare would be a good fit for Emperor Ming

Back in the days when there were buzz about a new FG film (2007), my favorite for the lead was Devon Sawa.
Now I think Rhys Wakefield should do it.

 

[Human Torch]

I thought the guy that played Flash on the SyFy series was pretty good.Dale and Aura were alright too.The rest of the cast was pretty poor,(The guy that played Zarkov looked like the creepy guy in the laundromat that looks under the wash machines for lost change.And the guy that played Ming was the dad from a failed Disney sitcom.Really?) and the stories were lacking most of the time.

 

[Silvermoth]

If they rebooted flash it would be Chris hemsworths role to loose.

Brilliant film by the way