Wouter Valentijn wrote:
> Quadibloc wrote:
>> On May 21, 8:37 pm, "Frank R.A.J. Maloney"
blarg.net> wrote:>>> Quadibloc wrote:
>>
>>>> Warner owns DC Comics. Why couldn't Paramount buy King Features
>>>> Syndicate, and just make a Flash Gordon movie?
>>>
>>> Over on the past-films group we've talking about a new Flash Gordon
>>> film
>>> being in some sense in the works. Go
>>>
tohttp://flashgordon.ws/new_movie.htmfor the scuttlebutt.
>>>
>>> And a new Buck Rogers.
>>>
>>> for the gossip on that one.
>>
>> While I do think that the Flash Gordon comic strip gave the world
>> some great artwork, my comment was simply aimed at the fact that the
>> mentality that would bring in the Romulans (because, hey, they're the
>> villains the fans like best, and we want to give this our best shot
>> at making money) as a debut villain for Kirk and Company... would do
>> less harm in a less ambitious franchise.
>>
>> After all, everybody would expect that Luthor would be the villain in
>> the first Superman movie, and that the Joker would be the villain in
>> the first Batman movie.
>>
>> There is a Flash Gordon TV show now on the Sci-Fi channel, I've
>> heard, but apparently it isn't all that great.
>>
>> As for rumored movie projects, one that fills me with genuine
>> anticipation is the rumor of a movie based on Edgar Rice Burroughs'
>> novels about John Carter on Barsoom, but I am not holding my breath.
>>
>
> Interesting. I have read some of the books and before that I think
> Marvel did a good job with the comic based on those.
> BTW, did anyone read Heinlein's 'Number of the Beast'? :-)
I read the books in my teens and loved them. It's quite "pulpy" stuff though
so they'd have to get the tone right. Will also need many scantily clad
babes a la Frazetta ;o)
I think the key point with any such project is to make it distinctive and
meritous rather than just another fantasy setting movie. Part of the
difficulty with that is that Burroughs was one of the early writers who set
the tropes that later became cliches; in a sense by being true to the source
material modern eyes may see it as derivative. But whatever, a big
production helmed by an imaginative and committed creative team could be
great fun!
There's also according to Michael Moorcock been some movement toward an
Elric movie, which again if done well would be fab; the Elric books were
another of my favourites when I was young. The general gloomy, very dark
atmosphere may be something of a challenge for a multiplex audience though.
Jude Law has been suggested as an Elric; I think he'd be excellent too. It'd
be even better and entirely appropriate if it had a Hawkwind soundtrack :oD
The greatest disappointment with any such conversion is if they're just done
as a soulless popcorn flick with the original source just used as
"branding". Elric more than anything would need a creative team really
committed to bringing a faithful as possible, epic vision to the screen and
a screenplay with plenty of "meat". Even trying to imagine how to bring
Chaos overwhelming the Earth in the final book to the screen boggles the
mind.
Ian
