Jim here. Am I surprised anymore at the number of sci-fi and horror movies that are going S3D? Nope. It is really more about what projects get green lit at all and which ones don't.
Breck Eisner (THE CRAZIES), director just spilled the beans to Collider that FLASH GORDON will be in 3D. Native 3D? Well judging by Eisner's choice of words I would say no: "Yes, this will definitely be a 3D movie. Like I said, when it’s the right kind of movie, you want to use the right kind of technology, so we intend to shoot it for 3D."
"...shoot it FOR 3D." Sounds like a 2D shoot that is optimized for a post production conversion to 3D. This is not confirmed, but certainly rings about right.
Here is what Eisner had to say about the movie itself: "Flash Gordon is a project I’ve been pursuing for years. It’s a true passion of mine. Sci-fi is a real passion of mine. And I finally got it set up at Sony and we hired the two writers, [Matt] Sazama and [Burk] Sharpless. I’ve been breaking story with them since I finished post on The Crazies, for the last two months or so. We finished that process; we’re now putting pen to paper, or keys to keyboard, and writing the script. We should have that in a month or two. And I think we have an awesome story. It’s not in any way connected to the camp of the ’80’s and it’s not connected to the serials of the ’50’s. It’s very much looking back to the original Alex Raymond strips; it’s imagining that Alex Raymond were to draw the strips today instead of in the ’30’s and ’40s and what would they be? It’ll be action and adventure; it’ll be aggressive and dynamic and intense with a really strong lead character who goes on an interesting personal journey over the course of the movie."
Sounds like he has got a good grip on what needs to be done with FLASH GORDON to make it a success. I know the 1980's version left a lot to be desired. We will keep our ear to the ground on this one and watch for telltale signs of his direction in THE CRAZIES. Early of course, but I think FG could turn out to be well worth watching.
Check out the remainder of the interview at Collider.
Breck Eisner, director of The Crazies, is currently heavily involved bringing a new, non-campy, 3-D Flash Gordon film to life. But how do you take the cheese out of Flash Gordon, with all its winged and furry-faced co-stars? Eisner explains.
We've read a lot about your upcoming work, after The Crazies. We heard you might be the director for The Brood, and that you are involved with a new take on the Flash Gordon franchise. Which movie would come first?
Well, The Brood, I was just approached about it. I haven't decided. I'm not sure if its one I want to take on. I love the original, and I'm not sure if it's a movie that I think is ready for a remake. I've been soul-searching and deciding if I want to do that.
Flash Gordon is a project that I've been pursuing for years. I absolutely love that movie, and that strip. It's at Sony, we have the writers on, we've done one draft. I've been brainstorming with them over the past couple months, when I finished post [for The Crazies]. They are busy writing right now, so we will have a script from that in short order, hopefully. It's a big, giant movie. And these things have a lot of different roads to go down before they get green light. Hopefully we'll get there, but it's always a long-shot, but it's one that I feel incredible passion for. In developing it, I've really gone back to the original Alex Raymond strips and pulled information from those.
I read that you really want to strip Flash Gordon of its campiness, what would have to go in order to accomplish this?
Yeah. Well inherently there are two key elements, I think, that removes the camp from the movie. When you re-read Raymond's strips, which were drawn from '32 to about the mid-40s you can't read them as a human being living in today's world. You have to imagine living in a world pre-space travel, and the world of the 30s. It's kind of a more naive view of the Universe. It's a mistake to try and [take] the sensibilities from then, and transplant them into today. So we, what the writers have been saying, is "What would it be like if Raymond was still alive today? If he was writing the strips now? What would he be doing? How much more sophisticated would it be?" And that's one one of our points of view. The other is, it's not just the level of sophistication in the world and in Mongo, and the design and the creatures. It's also the sophistication of character in Flash, and Dale, and Ming. What characters are more realistic and human? What characters have more flaws, and journeys to go on in the course of the movie?
It's such an iconic image, the Flash Gordon figure, just the costume and his boots alone. It's hard to imagine losing the costume or other classic images from the strip. Are those the type of things you think you'll have to do away with?
No, I think it's all a careful balance. I can tell you there will be Hawkmen, there will be Lionman, [and] Ming will be in the movie. In a version that is going to take place on Mongo. I love the source material, so lots of it is going to be in it. I'm not rediscovering, I'm not recreating a take on his original material. There are elements that will be in it, and there will certainly be elements that change. And unique takes on it that might not have been in reflected on before.
So were you a fan of the TV series?
No. Not at all, [ughhh]. I thought the TV series was not good. I think it did a lot of damage to the brand. To do Flash Gordon right — one of the reasons you can't is because of budget. I don't typically ever equate budget [with] a level of sophistication, or success in a project. Certainly, if you have all the money in the world, it doesn't mean you're going to have a good movie. But in a big movie like Flash Gordon, that takes place on another world, if you don't have the budget to do it right or the technology to do it right, it's going to inherently come out campy, whether you want it to or not. It's the only way that you can put that through to portray another planet. My take on this is to not do it, unless we have the right budget and can do it the right way.
Hmmm, well, the 1980 Flash Gordon movie was a sentimental favorite of mine because my wife and I saw it when we first got married (and we liked the Queen soundtrack), but it sounds like they may be courting disaster here...
Hmmm, well, the 1980 Flash Gordon movie was a sentimental favorite of mine because my wife and I saw it when we first got married (and we liked the Queen soundtrack), but it sounds like they may be courting disaster here...
Breck Eisner Delivers Updates on the Flash Gordon Remake.
Quote:
The Crazies is currently in theaters now and that means director Breck Eisner has been out talking with the press. In two interviews, Eisner chats about the status of the Flash Gordon remake he's been attached to since 2008. The good news is that it's the very next project for him. "Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless are working on the script right now. We're on the second draft now. It should be in the studio in a month or two. I'm very bullish on it. But it's a giant movie and will take a long time to do," Eisner told Heat Vision. He also spoke with Movieline about what to expect with the remake and it sounds like its being modernized a bit.
"Flash Gordon is a project I've been pursuing for years, it's a real passion of mine. The writers have been breaking story the past couple of months, and we have a couple months to go until the draft goes into Sony. Assuming they achieve everything we talked about, I think it will be a really great script.
It's not a remake of any movie that's been done before. Nothing to do with the camp of the '80s, nothing to do with the serials of the '50s. It's definitely based on the Alex Raymond strips from the '30s and '40s, told from the point of view as if he was redoing the strips today. The audience that was reading the strips back then was a very different audience that today's audience. It's an action-adventure, very dynamic, aggressive, with a really strong central character."
Eisner goes on to say that "it's a gigantic movie, so these things are tough to get made." It sounds like he's pushing for a big budget which is why Sony is taking their time to make sure this is perfect before moving forward. "Sony's got to commit big money to it and love it, and there's going to be years of prep. It's a lot of work! But if we can pull it off, I think it would be quite fantastic." I really hope so! After recently seeing The Crazies, I have some high hopes for this director. I totally loved his visual style and I'd love to see him get a big budget and go all out on an action/sci-fi like this.
I absolutely love "Flash Gordon" and whilst I'll definitely go see a "serious" remake, I doubt it'll take the place of the campy, cheesy 1980 cult classic in my list of all-time favourites.
IIRC, the '80 movie only happened after Filmation had bought the rights to a "serious" Alex Raymond-friendly animated feature that eventually fell through and was downgraded into the short-lived Saturday-morning cartoon.
The movie rights were eventually bought out by DeLaurentiis, and...well, studios always go for "retro camp" when they can't think of anything else to do with it, but in this case it worked.
I absolutely love "Flash Gordon" and whilst I'll definitely go see a "serious" remake, I doubt it'll take the place of the campy, cheesy 1980 cult classic in my list of all-time favourites.
Yeah, the 80s one charmingly cheesey but it’s a fun watch. No reason to mess with it.
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FLASH GORDON Going 3D!
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