SCI FI UK Picks Up Flash Gordon TV Series

LONDON, June 12: In a deal with distributor RHI
Entertainment, the SCI FI Channel has picked up the exclusive U.K. and Benelux
pay-TV, Internet, and VOD rights to the new live-action Flash Gordon television series.

Starring Smallville’s Eric
Johnson as the eponymous hero, the series of 22 1-hour episodes is set for a
prime-time launch on the network in early 2008. While the new Flash
Gordon series is based upon the 1936 Alex
Raymond comic-strip about three friends who battle an evil ruler on the planet
Mongo, key plot features have been downscaled to make way for an up-to-date
retelling of the story, which now includes time-travel and a modern-day
setting. Gina Holden (Final Destination 3 and Alien Vs. Predator)
plays the role of Flash’s love interest, Dale. Charmed writer Peter Hulme and the director Rick Rosenthal (Halloween
III, Bad Boys, Smallville, Law & Order: SVU, Buffy
The Vampire Slayer) have been recruited to
respectively write and direct episodes of the series. RHI’s Robert Halmi, Sr.
and Robert Halmi, Jr. (Tin Man, Mitch
Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven,
The Ten Commandments) both serve as executive producers.

Jon Farrar, the programming
director at SCI FI, commented: “We’re really excited about this re-imagining of
Flash Gordon. The series will be bold, sexy
and smart—totally relevant to today’s society without losing the fantasy
appeal of the original, intergalactic story.”