Nothing screams delicious sci-fi cheese quite like Flash Gordon, but unfortunately, we’ve been denied a new big screen adaptation of the star-wandering hero for nearly 40 years. But now it looks as though we’ll finally be returning to the planet Mongo, as the upcoming Flash Gordon reboot film has just found its writer/director.
Julius Avery, who most recently helmed the J.J. Abrams-produced WWII zombie flick Overlord, has been tapped by Fox to both write and direct a new Flash Gordon movie, according to Deadline. The project has been in the works for some time, with Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn originally attached to direct. But Vaughn dropped out years ago after Guardians of the Galaxy was released, as that film was too close to what he was hoping to do with Flash. Now, after a long period where it looked like the film was scrapped, Flash Gordon is now moving ahead at light speed (Vaughn is still producing the film).
Avery grew up a big fan of Flash Gordon comics, and the studio loved whatever his pitch was for a film adaptation. Flash Gordon of course started out as a comic strip way back in 1934 before moving into radio shows, film serials, various TV series, and that ultra-campy 1980 feature film, so there’s a chance Avery’s pitch harkens back to the franchise’s origins. The last Flash adaptation of note was the short-lived live-action series that aired on Syfy a decade ago. That show lasted just one season and was largely panned, so here’s hoping the next iteration of the athlete-turned-space adventurer fares better. Gordon lives!
