In June 2019, 20th Century Studios/Disney tapped Taika Waititi to helm an animated Flash Gordon movie, following several failed attempts at creating a live-action version, a project that began development years before Disney bought 20th Century Fox. Now the film is returning to live-action because the director is such a huge fan of the 1980 film directed by Mike Hodges. That should come as no surprise to anyone that’s seen Thor: Ragnarok!
While promoting Jungle Cruise, producer John Davis revealed:
“Taika is writing it. It was a movie that was a huge influence on him growing up. It is one of his favorite movies. He initially said to me, ‘Let’s do it animated.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ Then we got into it and started developing it and he said, ‘No, let’s do it live-action.’ I said, ‘Even better.'”
Flash Gordon harkens back to 1935, when the character debuted in the King Features Syndicate newspaper comic strip, by Alex Raymond. The feature has since been adapted countless times into comic books, prose books, radio dramas, film serials, TV shows, and cartoons. Nowadays, he is best known for the campy classic 1980 movie, which was introduced to a newer audience when it was featured in the hit 2012 comedy Ted.
The basic concept of Flash Gordon follows the exploits of an athlete named Flash Gordon, his female love interest Dale Arden, and scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov who journey to the planet Mongo to battle its ruler, Ming the Merciless, who plans to either conquer or destroy the Earth.
At 20th Century, Matthew Vaughn (the ‘Kingsman’ franchise) was first attached to direct. After he dropped out, Julius Avery (‘Overlord’) came on board. At one point, Mark Protosevich (the first Thor) was handling the script. Sam J. Jones, who starred in the 1980 film, was even involved on some level.
At the time that Waititi’s involvement was announced, it was not made clear what role he would play, but it is now clear that he is both writing and directing.
As Davis continued:
“Well, he’s writing it. So when somebody writes a script that they’re going to direct, they’re obviously going to really like the script, right? So you get a big leg up, right? A lot of times, you go to a huge director with somebody else’s script and he’s got to reinvent it. They’ve got to make it their own. They’ve got to… whatever. This is going to be Taika-ready.”
He further added:
“I’ve been talking to Taika about this movie since I first saw his Thor. He did this little movie in New Zealand that was just insane (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), that I loved… and that’s what got me interested in him. We sat down just to talk in general. We went to a bar together with this guy, Matt Reilly, who was an executive at Fox. We started kicking around ideas. And so, this is six years in the making, right? So I’ve waited for him a lot, a lot, a lot of time, but his enthusiasm has remained steadfast. And only he’s going to be able to direct this movie because only he should direct this movie. It is special.”
It’s unclear how much longer Davis (and the public) will have to wait until Flash Gordon gets made. Waititi is putting the finishing touches on Thor: Love and Thunder. He also created the new FX on Hulu comedy Reservation Dogs which debuts on August 9. Waititi is signed on to co-write and direct a Star Wars movie and he plans to reteam with Jemaine Clement to co-direct the mockumentary We’re Wolves, set in the same reality as What We Do in the Shadows. He was announced as being attached to an Apple TV+ series based on the 1981 Terry Gilliam film Time Bandits, but that was also announced in 2019 and there hasn’t been any news since then.
Are you excited to see a Flash Gordon film directed by Taika Waititi?
