Twentieth Century Fox has closed a deal acquiring the movie rights to Alex Raymond’s classic science fiction pulp magazine hero Flash Gordon.  It took more than a year, but veteran Producer John Davis (Chronicle, and the upcoming Man From U.N.C.L.E.) acquired the rights from the Hearst Corporation and hired George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum) to write a treatment.  Raymond’s popular comic strip, which debuted in 1934, spawned three movie serials starring Buster Crabbe in the 1930s, and a campy big screen movie in 1980.  Since then there have been numerous other attempts to find the right approach to bring Flash back to the big screen including a proposed 2004 version from Mummy director Stephen Sommers (see "'Flash Gordon' Film in the Works").
 
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Davis will produce the new Flash Gordon project at Fox, and he has hired J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to write the screenplay.  Payne and McKay recently finished a script for Star Trek 3.  Previously they wrote an adaptation of Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett’s graphic novel Boilerplate as well as an unproduced script for a Micronauts movie.

If the new Flash Gordon movie does get made, there should be plenty of product available.  In addition to reprints of the vintage Flash Gordon strips and comic books, Dynamite Entertainment recently announced a new Flash Gordon comic book series that recently debuted this month (see "Dynamite Announces New 'Flash Gordon' Comic").