The cad to end all cads, Sir Harry Paget Flashman, has already stepped once from the pages of George MacDonald Fraser’s work and on to the screen, in the shape of Malcolm McDowell in 1975’s Royal Flash. Ridley Scott thinks the character can still work in movies, as he’s teaming up with 20th Century Fox to develop a film around him.
Flashman, who originally appeared in Thomas Hughes’ 1857 novel Tom Brown’s School Days was spun by Fraser into a lucrative series of 11 novels and a collection of short stories that together form The Flashman Papers. Alhough Flash himself was fictional, he rubbed shoulders (and occasionally other things) with many real-life historical people in the books, as his adventures take him through a variety of notable events including the Charge Of The Light Brigade and the Crimean War. Despite his cowardly tendencies and capacity for self-preservation, he’s a capable, tough fighter when backed into a corner. And he could rival James Bond in terms of sexual activity.
It’s early days for this one, with no writer or other filmmakers attached yet. Scott’s next film is The Martian, which will land here on November 27.
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