FLASH GORDON 2007

[Hemingway Jones]

This disturbs me...

DAVE HOWE: ...I have to say that I have always been a huge fan, and it's always been one of my all time favorite movies.

Movies? What? Has this fellow seen the original serials? Does he even know it exists?

As some of you may know, Buster Crabbe is one of my all time favorite personalities. He is still the only actor to ever play "Flash," "Buck Rogers," and "Tarzan."

And yes, that 1980 film is watchable, but the epitome of camp. Now who was that actress who played Ming's daughter?

 

[Feraud]

Are you kidding, Feraud?

The overblown music by Queen, the psychedelic color pallette, the way-over-the-top costumes and sets, the absurd dialog, the blond-hunk-who-can't-act playing the lead, slumming serious actors like Max Von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, and Brian Blessed having a field day, THE BORE WORMS!... What WASN'T campy about the 1980 film?!? Do you think the people who made it thought they were making serious SF like 2001, or even serious-within-the-story Sci-Fi like Star Wars? That movie is definitely camp!

From the Wikipedia article on the film: "It intentionally uses a camp style similar the 1960s Batman TV show in an attempt to appeal to fans of the original comics and serial films."

Yes I am serious!!
Are musicals camp too? Guys and Dolls, Singing in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz. Technicolor, over the top numbers, etc. Maybe they are and I need to re-evaluate the idea.
The Wikipedia article can be take as an accurate a source as anyone chooses. I agree the end result of Flash Gordon is "campy" but....oh whatever! I need lunch.

 

[Story]

Aw, they did so great with this,

[Captain Picky sez] Why's the 82nd dude toting a PPSH41?[/Captain Picky sez]

Doc Strange, I think the Japanese pilots at Pearl Harbor would envy your ability to tear up the runway and set the planes on fire before they even got off the ground. SciFi doesn't even have all their details worked out yet.
http://www.geekmonthly.com/news/2007/01/06/new-flash-gordon-scifiseries/

Currently being developed by SciFi Channel under a cloak of secrecy is a new television series based on the classic comic book character created by Alex Raymond, Flash Gordon. Despite critical acclaim, SciFi’s stellar Battlestar Galactica re-imagination has had continued ratings erosion which network honchos believe may be attributable to the show’s dark tone. It has been known for awhile that SciFi has been looking to develop “lighter” properties in the vein of their Stargate series, although it is expected that Flash Gordon will have a far more serious tone than the campy 1980 film starring Sam Jones, Melody Anderson, Timothy Dalton, Max Van Sydow and Topol.

 

[griffer]

[Captain Picky sez] Why's the 82nd dude toting a PPSH41?[/Captain Picky sez]

'Cause Sci-fi network just puts out quality work.

I am sure you didn't realize the 82nd adopted the gun before the Russians stole the design and made it their own....lol

Or he lifted of a German.

Or its just sloppy.

 

[LocktownDog]

Flash Gordon?

I don't know if this has been brought up on these forums or not. If so ... sorry.

I was watching Dr Who on the Sci-Fi channel last night. During a beer run to the fridge, my oldest boy yelled, "Dad! Dad! You're not gonna believe what they remade into a TV series."

Sure enough, I come racing back in and find that starting next month Flash Gordon will be Sci-Fi's newest show. They got some kid who must be 17 playing the lead. I didn't see the rest of the cast or enough scenes in that one commercial to have me make an opinion yet. But I'm skeptical.

Has anyone heard anything?

Richard

 

[Starius]

Flash is played by Eric Johnson, who used to be Lana Lang's boyfriend in the tv series Smallville.

Dale Arden is played by Gina Holden, who is a actress on the supernatural Lifetime series "Blood Ties." I guess this means she'll be leaving Blood Ties after the next half season. Visually I think she will be perfect for the role, so I'm looking forward to seeing her in that.

With the exception of Battlestar Galactica, I don't have a lot of faith in Sci Fi Channel original productions but never the less, I still have my hopes up for this one.

 

[Sefton]

To me Flash Gordon is a hero of the 1930's. The art deco rocket ships and sets are the way it should look. I suppose the new TV version will be set in present or future time? Having said this I admit to having a somewhat guilty pleasure watching the big budget super cheesy 1980 theatrical version. Nobody ever told Dino DeLaurentis to tone it down. Ever. The bad and the beautiful indeed...

 

[Starius]

I have some of the old 1954 - 1955 Flash Gordon tv episodes (which were filmed in West Berlin, interestingly enough) on dvd and the episode entitled "Deadline at Noon" has a hilarious exchange of dialog:

(They go back in time to 1953 to foil a nefarious plot. Doctor Zharkhov talks to Dale and Flash about what the past was like.)

Dale: And the women Dr Zharkhov, what were they like?

Dr. Z: Well, instead of filling their heads full of knowledge about astro physics, atomic research, electronic phenomena like a certain young lady we know...

Dale: Yes well, what did they do? Sit home and knit?

Dr Z: Well, I wouldn't say that was all they did. But they certainly knew their way around a kitchen better than they did a laboratory.​

The way they deliver these lines, I burst out laughing every time I watch it...

 

[Doctor Strange]

The new version will probably be worthless. Honestly, I don't enjoy anything that the SciFi Channel has developed (I did like Stargate SG-1, but remember that it was developed and ran on Showtime for several years before SciFi dragged it on for way too long and milked it dry). It will be yet another desperate attempt to reuse an existing "property" and make a quick buck without honoring what made the original interesting in the first place.

I am also of the opinion that the 1930s serials (which I saw many times as a little kid: they were standard TV kiddie fare in the late 50s/early 60s) have a naive charm that can't be recaptured now. And I am not a fan of the campy 1980 film - I was already too old to really embrace it when it first came out, it was just so idiotic...

Nine out of ten times, there's no point in "reimagining" something that's already been done! But that doesn't stop today's clueless entertainment execs from trying...

 

[Flash Gordon]

Did someone call me?

 

[Lady Day]

And I am not a fan of the campy 1980 film - I was already too old to really embrace it when it first came out, it was just so idiotic...

Oh come on!
The craptacular-ness of that movie rivals The Apple! Gotta LOVE IT!! lol


LD

 

[Paratrooper]

The 80's film

come on it was good.
Max Von Sidow as MIng...who elss?
Queen doing the soundtrack (ok maybe the thier best work).
[huh]

 

[Doctor Strange]

Hey, I love Max Von Sydow (The Seventh Seal, anyone?!?), but I'll take classic hambone heavy Charles Middleton as Ming over him anytime!

Like many other things, my feelings about the 1980 Flash Gordon are a function of my age. I was already 25 when I saw it, not an impressionable little kid like most of you guys. I had grown up on the old 30s serials... My feeling about Star Wars, the Chris Reeve Superman films (not to mention the Tim Burton Batmans), and lots of other stuff is the same: they were all great fun, but they were never the definitive be-all and end-all to me that they are to folks just a few years younger.

The 1980 Flash Gordon was campy fun, but apart from its nutty over-the-top production design there's nothing actually good about it. The script is terrible, the acting is horrendous, the effects work shoddy... it's a good example of the drug-drenched excess of the disco years!

But if you love it, hey, that's your right. Don't let me stop you!

 

[Edward]

Oddly enough, I quite like the 1980 version - I speak as somebody with an unbridled hatred of what the Adam West stuff did to Batman. It's a crappy B Movie, and as such it's fine. I really would like to see them do it in a way that was true to the period it was written in. I loved Sky Captain (I must have been one of the few - such a shame it didn't do better) - it really had a fantastic period feel, and I'd love to see Flash Gordon given the same treatment. Either way, it'll be aeons before I see this new series anyhow (if ever), as I refuse to have subscription television at home.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The poor boxoffice performance of Sky Captain pretty much assures that we'll never see Flash Gordon get that kind of treatment.

I also liked Sky Captain, though as I said in one of the earlier threads dedicated to it, the film was too long even at 88 minutes (or whatever) and ran out of ideas well before the end, plus it was clear that the guy who directed it had no clue about pacing and screenwriting or handling actors. The film had great designs, had a good feel for the storytelling conventions of the period, and was loaded with fun-to-spot references for everything from the Fleischer Superman cartoons to Lost Horizon... but even as a fan, I have to admit that it didn't quite really work.

And let me state for the record that there's nothing wrong with liking crappy B movies, or even A movies that are just B movies with bigger budgets (which is pretty nearly everything nowadays)... But I'm a tough room, especially for remakes of stuff that I had loved in the original versions.

 

[Edward]

And let me state for the record that there's nothing wrong with liking crappy B movies, or even A movies that are just B movies with bigger budgets (which is pretty nearly everything nowadays)... But I'm a tough room, especially for remakes of stuff that I had loved in the original versions.

I get you. Remakes are always on dangerous ground. Some of them are fine (I loved the Addam Family movies, though qualifier: I haven't seen the third one with Tim Curry as Gomez and I think none of the original cast; the Brady Bunch was fun - setting them as they were in their 70s existence into a modern context), though far too many don't work. A lot are ok as films but stick so close to the original ,what's the point (See: Psycho remake). Others take the name and exploit the brand but actually veer so far away from the original that you end up wondering why didn't they just call it something else. Like the Matt Damon Italian Job. Actually a pretty good film, but three minis and the idea of the car chase aside, there was pretty much nothing from the original in it at all- wehy didn't they let it stand on its own two feet as a fairly decent hesit movie?

 

[Starius]

Video: Flash Gordon Panel at Comicon 2007

No rocket ships.... bummer. But I'm still cautiously optimistic.

 

[The Wolf]

No rocket ships??
What the 773H?

The old serials are still great.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[BeBopBaby]

I just read a review from a fan of the 1980 movie... the signs don't look good. The writing seems like it will be dismal. I love the campy-ness of the 1980 film and was hoping for something along those lines, but I don't think that will be happening. I also read they won't be using the Queen soundtrack from the 1980 film in the show, even though it's in the commercials. They just use canned music in the show.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I already had no intention of watching it - it looks terrible! - but I am a little surprised just how universally AWFUL the reviews are:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33634