Posted on 06/29/2007 5:06:12 PM PDT by KevinDavis
SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Flash Gordon will update the story for a new age, while still honoring the past incarnations with a retro look and feel, Mark Stern, executive vice president of original programming for SCI FI Channel, told reporters.
"I think there is definitely a conscious effort on the part of [executive producer] Peter Hume and his writers in L.A. to be true to the original material," Stern said in a press conference on the set of the show in Vancouver, Canada, on June 27.
Stern said that the show, starring Eric Johnson, will incorporate elements from the source material, the King Features newspaper comic strip and subsequent incarnations, including the 1930s film serials starring Buster Crabbe and the 1980 feature film. But he added that the material will be updated to make it more contemporary and avoid campiness.
"If you're going to do something from the '30s or '70s, even, it's going to have that kind of very stiff or campy vibe," Stern said. "And I think there's been a real conscious effort also to stay away from camp here, to make it fun, to make it grand, to make it relatable and yet not take itself too seriously, but not just be frivolous either."
Flash Gordon originated as a comic strip in the 1930s and has seen many adaptations, including film serials, comic books, television series and feature films. The 1980 movie, directed by Mike Hodges and starring Sam Jones, has achieved a kind of cult status because of its campy style and a memorable soundtrack by Queen. A cover version of that music could be heard in a recent promotional spot for the new series on SCI FI. Stern confirmed that the theme would be used in the marketing campaign for the series, but not in the actual show.
"[We're] looking at updating the Queen song just a bit," he said. "So it's definitely the Queen song we all know and love, with a little something extra. Because it is about communicating the fact that it's not the '70s Sam Jones movie with people in spandex and everything we love about that movie. The show is not that campy. But how do you not use that music? It's so wonderful. So we're trying to have a little of both, to have our cake and eat it, in that regard. But I don't believe the music is actually going to be in the series itself."
One departure from the source material is a new character called Baylin (Karen Cliché), a bounty hunter from the planet Mongo. She finds herself trapped on Earth and becomes a comrade of Flash (Johnson); his former girlfriend, Dale Arden (Gina Holden); and scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov (Jody Rasciot), who are able to travel back and forth through a portal between the two worlds.
"I think that there's an amazing chemistry, actually, between this group," Stern said. "What's great about what Peter's done is to kind of add Baylin into this mix of this couple that have kind of been estranged now, but there's still chemistry. And now you've got this kind of sexy alien in the middle of it, and when hasn't that happened before? And so they're trying to figure out that whole dynamic now. And then you've got Jody, who's just this great energy in the middle of all that."
The villain of the show will still be the dictator Ming (not called "the Merciless" in this version), played by John Ralston. He still rules over Mongo with an iron fist, but he'll have a contemporary spin as well.
The show will take Ming "into more of a kind of Saddam Hussein, dictator type of character and play with some of those themes of control over the masses and propaganda," Stern said. "And he's not just this dictator in the old-school sense."
What does that mean? Stern added: "I think a kind of dictator for the modern age is a little more savvy and is a little more about getting the P.R., and he's really more concerned about putting the right face on everything while he's torturing and killing people."
Flash Gordon is currently filming its first season of 22 episodes and will premiere on SCI FI Channel in August
Oh, someone was gonna post it sooner or later anyway.
BTW: The season finale of “Doctor Who” is tomorrow night on BBC One. The last four or five episodes have been a wild rollercoaster of a ride that even sees the death of the President of the United States (a President Winters, and no, that isn’t a huge spoiler!)....
"Just a man, with a man's courage..."
So I take the season is good.. It is showing on SciFi channel next week.. I think they are showing the Christmas episode.
Has its ups and downs. The finale could have been better, especially given the buildup -- but all in all, I'm pleased.
SciFi is showing both "The Runaway Bride" (the Christmas special with Catherine Tate) and "Smith and Jones" (which introduces Freema Ageyeman as Martha Jones) next week. "Bride" is a slightly different flavor than the rest of the season, but fits well.
The finale ("The Last of the Time Lords") cleans up a bunch of loose ends and drops one heck of a bomb (that also cleans up a huge loose end dating back to season one's "Parting of the Ways", and peripherally all the way back to "End of the World" -- which was season one, episode two).
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