'Flash Gordon' reboot lands Matthew Vaughn as director; Film to abandon gritty remake plans for camp story?

By Adam Bellotto

Apr 21, 2015 10:36 AM EDT

Flash Gordon might not be a hot property right now, but it's about to be. The classic comic strip, about adventurer Flash Gordon and his travels on the planet Mongo, hasn't been popular in years, but it's just been championed for a remake. And the remake's already found a director- Matthew Vaughn, according to Variety.

Vaughn seems like the ideal choice for a franchise like this. Vaughn's known for high-energy, fast paced action films. His previous works include Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and Kingsman: The Secret Service. According to Variety, Vaughn will work with 20th Century Fox and producers George Nolfi and John Davis on the upcoming reboot. As well, the film will be written by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who recently wrote the script for the upcoming Star Trek sequel, Star Trek 3.

This isn't the first Flash Gordon project to take off, incredibly. It was recently rumored that Sam J. Jones, who starred in a 1980 film version of Flash Gordon that's since become a cult classic, would be starring in another version of the film, said to be far less campy and cartoonish than the 1980 version, and much more of a stripped down story based on the original comic strip.

It's not yet clear if the new Flash Gordon reboot would still follow that last reboot's plan- to take things more seriously, or to go back to the campy, fun style that made the 1980 film such a cult classic. With Vaughn involved, it would seem like the campy style would make more sense, but official details have yet to be revealed.

And some are quite opposed to any idea of a Flash Gordon reboot. Some claim the film might be nothing more than another John Carter- a famous box office bomb based on a franchise just as old as Flash Gordon.

We'll see what happens as the project develops.

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