Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Flash Gordon’ Movie Hires ‘I Am Legend’ Screenwriter

And in distinctively other superhero news, Matthew Vaughn’s Flash Gordon movie is picking up a bit of steam. After years of failed development, the project finally started to get somewhere when Vaughn signed on to direct last year, and although a couple of writers have already taken a pass at the screenplay, the hiring of I Am Legend and Oldboy scribe Mark Protosevich may prove a bit more fruitful.

Protosevich announced his involvement with Flash Gordon on Facebook (via HitFix):

I can’t wait to get started and if you’re curious about the take? I’m not saying a word. All I’ll say is this - it will be nothing like any version of Flash Gordon you’ve seen.

Flash Gordon originated as a comic strip in the ’30s, and centered on the eponymous hero and his adventures on the planet Mongo, where he’s been stranded with female companion Dale Arden and the maniacal scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov. His most notorious foe is Ming the Merciless, though he and his companions encountered and thwarted many other strange, otherworldly antagonists throughout the decades.

Flash Gordon hasn’t been on the big screen since 1980, and 20th Century Fox has been trying to develop a new film based on the character for several years.

Protosevich has worked on screenplays for Thor and John Carter, and is also credited with writing Spike Lee’s Oldboy, I Am Legend and The Cell. His track record isn’t without flaw, but he has delivered some interesting and often edgy work, and edgy is right up Vaughn’s alley.

Vaughn, meanwhile, has not yet been confirmed to direct Kingsman: The Secret Service 2, though our fingers remain crossed as it would be the first time the director has helmed a sequel to his own project. And with the Flash Gordon script not yet locked and Kingsman 2 set to begin filming this spring, that gives him plenty of time to deal with both.