Matthew Vaughn Wanted to Direct ‘Flash Gordon’ Reboot

Matthew Vaughn! AAAA-ahhhhh! Savior of the reboot!

Matthew Vaughn! AAAA-ahhhh! He saved every film for us!

All right maybe my lyrics need a little work, but you get the drift: Fox is making a new version of Flash Gordon, the famous comic-strip hero created by Alex Raymond, and per The Hollywood Reporter they’re “in negotiations” with Matthew Vaughn to direct the movie. Flash previously appeared onscreen in the campy (and awesome) 1980 Flash Gordon movie directed by Mike Hodges and starring Sam J. Jones and Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless.

This Flash reboot was last in the news a year ago, when it was announced that Fox was pursuing the project and had brought in Star Trek 3 writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to work with George Nolfi on the screenplay for the film. THR says that’s where the script still stands — screenplay by Payne and McKay, treatment by Nolfi — now that Vaughn is getting involved. He’s coming off the hugely successful Kingsman: The Secret Service, which grossed almost $400 million worldwide and was distributed by Fox. No wonder they want him to stick around and adapt another comic property for the studio.

Kingsman was based on a recent comic book, but it was rooted in the cheesy, cheeky Bond movies of the 1970s and ’80s. It managed to embrace all the tropes of those old movies, and to update them in a way that was fun without making fun of them. That seems perfect for Flash Gordon. If you can sell the character’s silly side and make it exciting and cool, you’ve got a big hit on your hands, and, dare I say, a miracle. (AAA-aaaah!)