Both Cinescape and IGN Filmforce are reporting that Van Helsing director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns) is set to produce a new film for Universal based on Alex Raymond's classic science fiction comic strip Flash Gordon.  Sommers, who has made a career out of resuscitating Universal's pulpy horror heroes of the 1930s, may or may not direct the new Flash Gordon epic depending on the success of Van Helsing, which opens May 7.  If Van Helsing dominates the box office this spring, Sommers may have to start work on a sequel almost immediately, which would make it difficult for him to direct the Flash Gordon film. According to IGN Filmforce, Ronald Sussett, who co-wrote Alien and Total Recall, is set to pen the screenplay for the new Flash Gordon film.

Flash Gordon has graced the silver screen before, most notably in the person of Buster Crabbe, who starred in the three Flash Gordon serials produced at Universal from 1936-40.  The first Universal serial had an enormous budget (for the time) of $350,000 and production values far higher than most serials produced during the era.  The polo playing Flash of the 1930s became a New York Jets quarterback in the 1980 Flash Gordon film, one of those movies that is so bad, it's good.  Whatever the approach Universal takes this time, a Flash Gordon movie should be good for pop culture retailers.  Dark Horse has published four volumes of Mac Raboy's sterling work on the Flash Gordon newspaper strip, and Checker has plans to publish an Alex Raymond Flash Gordon collection this summer.