Taika Waititi is an endlessly busy man of late, developing a handful of projects while also working on the likes of Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love And Thunder. Among the movies bubbling away in the background for him is a new take on Flash Gordon, and there's an update: once an animated film, he's now switching to live-action.
The update comes via producer John Davis, who is overseeing the new Flash. "Taika is writing it. It was a movie that was a huge influence on him growing up. It is one of his favorite movies," Davis tells Collider. "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.'"
Flash Gordon originated in the 1930s comic strip created by Alex Raymond. The strip follows polo player and Yale graduate, and his companions Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov, who travel to the planet Mongo where they come into conflict with its evil ruler, Ming the Merciless. Various adaptations of have popped up on TV and film, including Mike Hodges' 1980 campy movies and a more serious series that landed for one season on the US SyFy Network.
"He has the most fantastically interesting vision for this movie. And you can only know it is Taika," Davies adds. "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," said Davis, who said that Waititi hopes to surprise audiences with his updated take on the character. "It harkens in a very interesting way to the original conception from the comics." For more from Davis, head to Collider.
Waititi has yet to fully commit to direct the film, but Davis is hopeful that he'll find the time before too long.