I know Mike Hodges‘ 1980 film Flash Gordon is considered to be a cult classic, but I am not a part of that cult. Telling the story of a polo player (the film changed him to a football player) who finds himself traveling to the planet Mongo to battle Ming the Merciless, Flash Gordon was created in 1934 by artist Alex Raymond and that first film adaptation was beyond campy to the point I found it hardly watchable. Now Fox is setting out to do what producer Neal Moritz couldn’t about six years ago at Sony, which is take another stab at a feature film adaptation.
THR reports Fox has secured the rights for a feature adaptation and has set Star Trek 3 scribes, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, to write the screenplay based on a treatment written by George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum).
I have little expectation this will actually make it to the big screen, though I do wonder, what has a better chance, this or a movie based on the Easter marshmallow candy “Peeps“, which Adam Rifkin (Detroit Rock City, Underdog) is prepared to develop into a supposed The Lego Movie-esque feature film and TV series?
Deadline reports Rifkin got the idea from watching his niece and nephew construct their own Peeps diorama for a school project. The story would be set the night before a Peeps diorama contest, like the one held each year by The Washington Post, when a wayward Peep gets misplaced and must adventure through the fantasy lands of different-themed dioramas before the contest’s judging begins.
Okay, based on the success of The Lego Movie, this storyline kind of makes sense. After all, it’s not as if I fall into the demographic targeted by a “Peeps” movie.
