Flash gets real
Gina Holden will be starring with Eric Johnson in the SciFi Channel’s new Flash Gordon series, debuting this August. No stranger to heroic fantasy projects, the Canadian actress previously appeared in Fantastic Four, The Butterfly Effect 2 and the upcoming Alien vs. Predator 2.
Based upon Alex Raymond’s classic newspaper comic strip, SciFi has already committed to a full 22 episode season. Jody Racicot (Night at the Museum) will play Dr. Hans Zarkov, and John Ralston (Earthstorm) will play the greatest villain of all time, Mongo’s Emperor Ming the Merciless. Anna van Hoft will play Ming’s daughter Aura, who has the hots for Flash and, therefore, doesn’t like Dale very much.
No word on who’s going to play Vultan, king of the original Hawkmen. Brian Blessed, who played the role in the 1980 motion picture, is currently filming Doctor Who.
I'm very excited by this news. I am a fan of the original serials, and also the Queen soundtracked movie. "All Hail Flash!"
So I was trying to brush up on my Flash Gordon knowledge — I only vaguely remember the 1979 TV animated series. I loved the Movie — hard to explain to a 10 year old why that movie bombed. It looks like it more than bombed, it looks like it brought done a major Legacy. Wikipedia has Flash Gordon media dating back to the 1930s. Maybe Sci-Fi can revive a classic character and do for Flash Gordon what they did for Battlestar Galactica.
Those Flash Gordon serials from the 1930s hold up quite well, as long as one appreciates the fact that a 15 chapter serial that runs over five hours in total had a lower budget than a 90 minute feature. Particularly the first one, which I regard as the Citizen Kane of heroic fantasy serials.Charles Middleton, who played Ming The Merciless, is my all-time favorite movie villain, bar none. Screw Darth Vader; this guy was total evil and proud of it. He also appeared in Duck Soup (playing straight for Chico Marx), Gone With The Wind, and The Grapes of Wrath.