Mentioned in THUD a few weeks back, and since then there’s been some progress, and I’m interested in seeing what becomes of this, so I figured I’d start a thread. Cast so far:
Flash - Eric Johnson
Dale Arden - Gina Holden
Dr. Hans Zarkhov - Jody Racicot
Ming the Merciless - John Ralston
Due in August.
Johnson strikes me as a tad young.
First I’ve heard of it - any sense of the tone they are going for? I can’t imagine the darker, BSG v.2 route would work for FG but if they have fun with it, make it a Firefly/Serenity-meets-Queen soundtrack kind of affair, I’d be interested.
Flash has always been fairly young. He has no super powers except good timing, good luck, athleticism, and a way with alien gals ala James T Kirk. How old is Eric Johnson? If the show is successful it could be on for 5-10 years, so being young is an asset.
I read an interview that stated Flash Gordon and friends would travel via Stargates that exist between Earth and Mongo. It might have been IGN.
No word whether or not the Stargates are based on those in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century or Stargate the series.
I have quiet hopes for this series since I love the movie. What else has this guy who is playing Flash been in?
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| Originally Posted by Master Chuin I have quiet hopes for this series since I love the movie. What else has this guy who is playing Flash been in? |
A quick IMDb check shows his biggest gig so far has been playing Lana Lang’s boyfriend Whitney on the first few seasons of Smallville.
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| Originally Posted by alobek A quick IMDb check shows his biggest gig so far has been playing Lana Lang’s boyfriend Whitney on the first few seasons of Smallville. |
Dagger.
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| Originally Posted by duke fleed Flash has always been fairly young. He has no super powers except good timing, good luck, athleticism, and a way with alien gals ala James T Kirk. |
I don’t know, looking at him in the old comics and the Buster Crabbe serials, he always struck me as being in his late-20s at the youngest, and even Sam Jones didn’t look like he just got out of college. If this guy was playing a high school kid as recently as three years ago, he just seems he won’t have the pulpy heroic thing going for him.
20 somethings get cast as teens all the time. Johnson might be 25 or so, and he could always bulk up for the role.
According to IMDB Eric Johnson will be 28 years old in August. He will be the right age for the role. He also gues starred on The Unit for 1 episode.
Chronologically yes, but like you said, if he’s still getting cast in teen roles, it makes me wonder if this Flash Gordon is going to be some college kid, which doesn’t strike me as fitting in with the material. I always got the impression Gordon had been around a bit, more along the lines of an Indiana Jones in space than Luke Skywalker.
I think posting this means I have some subconscious hate for all of us, but it has been in my head a couple of days:
Apparently, this starts up this week. I knew nothing about it. Oddly, I discovered it because I went to Amazon to put the new special edition DVD of the Sam Jones movie on my wishlist, and there happened to be an add for the series on the front page. I hadn’t even put “flash gordon” in the search line yet, and there it was. Bizarre.
I’ll at least check the thing out, but I’m not expecting much. They used the Queen song in the promo, so I can at least hope they’re going for the camp. I really don’t want a dark reimagining or anything.
It really sounds like they’re shooting for another Battlestar Galactica, so I do suspect it’ll be a dark reimagining. But hopefully I’m wrong.
Flash Gordon on Sci Fi at 9 pm tonight. Can Flash save everyone of us from most of the mundane programs on television. He must…He is “The Saviour of the Universe” after all.
I’m torn. There’s a part of me that wants to simply go with my initial reaction - that the pilot was a giant, steaming pile of shit that was produced by people who don’t get Flash Gordon on even the most basic of levels - and another part of me that loves the old strips, loves the 1980 movie, and so wants this to be good that I can’t give up yet.
The problem is that the pilot just flat-out sucked; it was more like Sliders than anything else, and there wasn’t even a whiff of the fun that Flash Gordon has been about since it’s inception. The fundamental problem with trying to update Flash Gordon is that the character has been so dated for so long that it’s a large part of his appeal. Trying to go more realistic - and throwing in a budget that made it look like it was shot in someone’s backyard, with occasional jaunts to a warehouse and/or massage parlor - just doesn’t work, or at least didn’t here.
The irony of it all is that whoever cut the promos seems to get the property a hell of a lot better than anyone involved with actually producing that pile of crap does; the stuff they emphasized in the after-credits promo looks like an entirely different show. I suspect that one sucks too, but it’s a sign of just how bad this thing was that those promos looked better.
Stephen Sommers would have handled that better. I swear to god, Stephen Sommers. Hell, Joel Schumacher, in full Batman and Robin mode, would have made something truer to the spirit of Flash Gordon than this mess.
The thing is, even if you tried to squint and ignore that it was trying to be Flash Gordon, and simply judge it on its own merits, it still sucks. Hell, it made Charmed look inspired, original, and well-budgeted. Just boring, uninspired, derivative pseudo-science fiction.
You nailed it, Ben. I tried getting into it. Really tried. But there was nothing that screamed Flash Gordon apart from the names.
Where were the spaceships? The aliens? The swashbuckling? The costumes?The style and panache? Why were they back on Earth so fast? Put 'em on Mongo, let 'em stay there for a season or two, working to get back to Earth. SciFi should look at the old strips, the '80s movie and go that route - I want a retro feel for this! Shit, make Mongo steampunk if it’ll help!
According to Daily News Critic David Bianculli, Flash meets the Amazon women in ep 3. Baylin is an alien Bounty Hunter, and we met Ming, His henchman, A robot from Mongo. Give it time. This is Flash Gordon’s re launch into the mainstream media. Just like Batman Begins, Flash will become the hero that will save everyone of us. There are 22 episodes for this season alone. I found the pilot to be a good start. Flash Gordon, Dale, Zarkov, are perfectly cast, while Ming was re imagined as an evil dictator instead of an Asian Emporor of the Universe.
Is duke fleed really a Flash Gordon shill who has infiltrated us? I’m on to you fleed!
I Tivoed this last night and am afraid to watch it. I’ve yet to hear anything decent from any intelligent individual.
It’s an hour and a half of waiting for something good to happen, prepare for the disappointment upon Mings reveal.