Cobalt 60 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Usually when a harebrained idea like remaking Flash Gordon starts to make the rounds, you can usually count on it being at least a few years down the line -- but I guess today I'm just not that lucky. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have now signed to pen the update of the classic sci-fi tale with Sahara director Breck Eisner at the helm. Eisner signed to direct last May, and with the addition of the screenwriting duo, it could mean the project just entered the fast track. Sazama and Sharpless have had a busy 2008, and were already hard at work on scripting duties for Alex Proya's Dracula Year Zero and Zack Snyder's Cobalt 60 when the Flash deal finalized.

For those of you out there not familiar with the Depression-era hero, Flash Gordon centered on a dashing polo player who is abducted and taken to the faraway planet Mongo. Along with his gal-pal *Gail and scientist Hans Zarkov, Flash lands in the middle of a battle with the dreaded Ming the Merciless (possibly one of the best villain names around). Originally, Universal was holding the rights to the title, but when the project fell through, the rights reverted to King Features Syndicate and eventually found a home at Sony.

This latest incarnation of the adventurer/polo player will mark the third time the classic comic strip has had a home on the big screen (including the original serial). Now that Hollywood is mining the comic book store at a furious pace, the third time could be a charm for Flash.

But it's going to be pretty hard to top Dino DeLaurentiis' psychedelic trip of a film back in 1980 -- don't ya think?

*Correction: Apologies to all the Flash fans out there; Flash's better half was Dale Arden.

Director Zach Snyder, who basically came out of nowhere in 2004 to direct the terrific remake of Dawn of the Dead , is now making quite a name for himself lately in the comic book/graphic novel-to-big-screen adaptation world. Snyder is currently finished directing the much-anticipated (and reported) film version of Frank Miller's epic graphic novel about the battle of Thermopylae 300 , and has also been signed to direct the big-screen adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel Watchmen.

As of this week, Snyder can now add yet another film like these to his growing resume. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder has been attached to direct the big-screen version of the cult comic book Cobalt 60 for Universal. Snyder is also set to produce the film with Debbie Snyder (any relation, I wonder?) but he won't be handling the writing chores as he did with 300. Instead, a search for a writer to adapt the story of masked hero Cobalt 60's thirst for revenge in a post-apocalyptic world full of mutants, on the evil Strontium 90 who murdered his parents, is currently underway.

It's a good thing Snyder picked up Cobalt 60 now that 300 has wrapped and his big-screen adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six is probably not going to happen for awhile, or ever, because I want him to have a job after he finishes Watchmen. Plus, from what I've seen of 300 it looks to be a fantastic film, so Snyder is smart to stick to the kind of material he knows and can obviously make something great out of. No word yet on potential casting or a start date for Cobalt 60.