Two years ago, Taika Waititi signed on to helm a Flash Gordon movie about the space opera comic hero who debuted back in 1934. The film was initially planned to be an animated feature but recent reports prove that’s no longer the case, and the project is now being developed as a live-action film.
While promoting his latest release, Jungle Cruise, producer John Davis revealed to Collider that this decision was made by Waititi himself, saying,
“Taika is writing it. It was a movie that was a huge influence on him growing up. It is one of his favorite movies. He initially said to me, ‘Let’s do it animated.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ Then we got into it and started developing it and he said, ‘No, let’s do it live-action.’ I said, ‘Even better.'”
We’re gonna have to trust the insane mind of Taika Waititi on this one. While the initial animated plan sounded like a promising prospect for the character, if Waititi is excited about a live-action version, so are the rest of us. The Thor: Ragnorak director has repeatedly proven his talent for making reality vibrant, colorful, and deliriously fun. Ragnorak easily goes down as one of the most stylish Marvel films to date, and even his dark comedy Jojo Rabbit had fairy tale elements to it.
Flash Gordon, Taika Waititi Style
Waititi’s Flash Gordon movie joins the endless pile of upcoming projects for the writer-director, which includes an untitled Star Wars film and remake of the anime classic, Akira. When he’ll find the time to actually pen the script for this series is one of life’s great mysteries, but at some point, it’ll appear on the release docket and the sun will shine a little brighter for it. Davis certainly seems to think so — his conversations with Waititi have revealed a few of the ideas the writer has in store. He shared little specifics but said,
“[Taika] has the most fantastically interesting vision for this movie. And you can only know it is Taika. It is what he does. It is the way he looks at the world. He is the greatest guy in the world. He is the funniest guy in the world. And he thinks on a different plane. And this movie embraces everything that’s special about Taika, and his vision. It harkens in a very interesting way to the original conception from the comics.”
The original Flash Gordon comic strip was created by Alex Raymond to compete with Buck Rogers. Gordon was a handsome polo player and Yale graduate who traveled to the alien planet Mongo to face off against its evil ruler, Ming the Merciless.
His further adventures with companions Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov took them to ice cities, jungle kingdoms, and all sorts of magical worlds across the galaxy. The storylines were elaborate and its worlds were famously imaginative. It’s exactly the kind of source material a writer like Waititi can take in any direction he pleases. Based on Davis’ words, that’s exactly what we can expect — and a soaring space adventure from Taika Waititi sounds like an absolute ball, animated or not.
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