17 Apr – Aside from working on the third "Star Trek" film, screenwriters JD Payne and Patrick McKay would also be penning the script for a new "Flash Gordon" film. Empire Online reported that the writers working on "Star Trek 3", JD Payne and Patrick McKay, recently put together a new take on Gordon with producer Jon Davis and are now in the process of negotiating a studio deal. It should be noted that none of the duo's scripts have been adapted to film yet, although Payne and McKay's work must have seem favourable to J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot, because they also adapted the graphic novel "Boilerplate" for the production company. Payne and McKay aims to restore Flash Gordon's reputation by going right back to the original Raymond comic strips and sidesteps any association with the movie, and even the serials.
Flash Gordon made his debut in comic strips drawn by Alex Raymond on January 1934. Flash is a handsome polo player and Yale University graduate who gets dragged into the planet Mongo along with his companion Dr. Dale by Dr. Hans Zarkov when the Earth is bombarded by fiery meteors. There, they discover the meteors are weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of Mongo. Subsequent comic strips see the trio have adventures on Mongo. "Flash Gordon" has been adapted to film in 1980 as "Flash Gordon", and stars former Playgirl-centerfold Sam J. Jones in the title role. The film's plot is based loosely on the first few years of the comic strip. The film was not a critical success on release, but has since achieved cult-status.