Some more news on the upcoming Flash Gordon film. I'd say remake, but it's not intended to be one. This film is supposed to be more closely following the original comics and serials, than any of the 80's movie. Here's what the director recently said about his take on the film:

Director Breck Eisner ("The Crazies") tells Airlock Alpha that his planned "Flash Gordon" film will hopefully be the 'origin' story of a franchise if he gets his way.

"It will be a standalone story, it definitely won't left open for more, but the ultimate goal is to turn it into a franchise...It will be an origins story for Flash. He's going to Mongo, he's gonna save the planet and it will have a superhero buy in and will be unique. It is very much a superhero origins story" says Eisner.

Rather than camped up tone of the 1980 film, Eisner plans a straight forward adaptation which will update the original 1930s comic strips and "shoot the movie as if the strips were drawn today". The director also wants to avoid being compared to SyFy's attempted TV series remake a few years ago which he labels "crap, total crap."

Thankfully SyFy (the network that can screw up anything) already "reimagined" Flash Gordon so horribly that no other reimagining will likely be considered for some time. I'm hoping that if this is true, the director is able to really create a new and unique world for Flash, yet stay true to the roots of the character and not feel the need to reinvent the characters. The potential is there, no doubt, with the established mythos.

I think Eisner may have the chops to pull it off too. His remake of "The Crazies" was one of the underrated films of the last year and vastly superior than the original. If he can bring that kind of vision and directing to this project, Flash Gordon may finally be able to step out of the B-movie realm and into the mainstream again.

If you're interested in more Flash Gordon, he's got a lot of love here at Infinite Hollywood with a Flash Gordon Celebration last year, covering all the action figures and the 1980's film.