Hollywood is striking while the Iron Man is hot.
Sony Pictures has won a bidding war for the rights to produce a big-screen, bigger-budget adaptation of the futuristic comic book Flash Gordon.
The studio shelled out in the "high six figures" for the rights to make a live-action film based on the classic strip, a franchise-ready tale of an American sports star who is kidnapped by a mad professor and transported, via rocketship, to the planet of Mongo, where he is forced to fight to save Earth.
The comic, created in 1934 by Alex Raymond, has already had several live-action incarnations, most recently in a short-lived series on the Sci Fi Channel. It also took an ill-fated stab at big-screen glory back in 1980, with an adaptation that was notable only for its Queen soundtrack.
This time around, Sahara director Breck Eisner will take over, doing his best to ensure Flash is on the big screen—not in the pan.