Believe it or not, there’s a lot of beloved intellectual properties that haven’t been rebooted in our brave new franchise future. Exhibit A: Remember Flash Gordon? He’s the universe-trotting earthling born on the pages of comic strips in 1934. Last we saw him, at least in motion picture media, was as a short-lived Syfy series. A modern reboot has been long in the works, but according to a Variety scoop, he may come back, this time as an animated feature helmed by Taika Waititi.
Waititi, of course, is a very busy man: The director and performer helmed Thor: Ragnarok, and he oversaw the TV version of What We Do in the Shadows, which translated his hit mockumentary (in which he also co-starred) to FX. As per Variety’s contact, it’s still too early to know if Waititi will direct or write or what, but he will be taking a “crack” at it.
To many born in the last 40 years, Flash Gordon is best known via the 1980 movie revival, with Max von Sydow as bald baddie Ming the Merciless, humanitarian (and Ted scene-stealer) Sam J. Jones as our strapping hero, and songs from Queen. The character was also the subject of three separate movie serials from 1936 through 1940, whose look — especially their ascending opening crawls — were massive inspirations on Star Wars.
On top of his potential involvement in bringing back the galactic do-gooder, Waititi is wrapping up Jojo Rabbit, a dark comedy set in Nazi Germany, starring Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, and, as Adolf Hitler, Waititi himself. He’s also hard at work on the stop-motion project Bubbles, for Netflix. But surely he can find some time for a space hero who can also play football.
(Via Variety)