'Flash Gordon' pace quickens with scribes

August 08, 2008 Sony has signed writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to pen the script for the new take on the outer space tale, just a few months after winning rights to the title from Hearst. "Flash Gordon" centers on the titular young polo player who is kidnapped and taken to the distant planet Mongo, where he and companions Dale Arden and Hans Zarkov embark on a series of adventures fighting a ruler named Ming the Merciless. Sony's "Flash," a live-action film, follows in a 75-year tradition across many media for what began life as Alex Raymond's comic strip; the property was a movie serial in the 1930s, a Sam Jones-toplined feature in 1980 and a recent Sci Fi Channel series.

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