Flash Gordon: Overlord’s Julius Avery The Latest Director Attached

Julius Avery, Flash Gordon

by James White |
Published on

A new cinematic adaptation of pulpy comic serial Flash Gordon has been in the works for years now, particularly at Fox. And there's another director attached to take a stab at making it, with Son Of A Gun's Julius Avery nabbing the job for Fox.

Flash Gordon originated in comic strip form back in 1934, with Flash pitted on the planet Mongo fighting its tyrannical ruler, Ming the Merciless. It has gone through a few screen variants, as Buster Crabbe played him in serial fashion later in the 1930s and then more memorably by Sam Jones in the campy, Queen-soundtracked 1980 movie. You can get a better idea of Flash's history in our feature on him.

Fox has had a few stabs at the idea, with JD Payne and Patrick McKay hired to write a draft in 2014 and Matthew Vaughn was seriously interested in directing in 2015, though he'll now step back and simply produce.

Avery, who has World War II horror thriller Overlord headed our way on 7 November, is apparently a big Flash fan and pitched Fox on his idea. Now all we can do is wait and see whether Gordon can truly come alive again.

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