Breck Eisner On His Vision for 'Flash Gordon'

After an artistic rebound with The Crazies, director Breck Eisner has his eyes on another remake. Actually, he's got several, but the one that's gathered the most attention is Flash Gordon. Let's not forget, this guy's first movie was an action-adventure called Saraha, and there's no reason to go near that again anytime soon.

But he seems to be improving his chances for success with Flash Gordon by going to the heart of the story and not thinking from the outside in. In other words, He seems to be drawn in by the character and not the trimmings you could put on any movie these days. “The comic from 1930s was made into serials in the '50s and '70s, then the director’s version in the '80s," Eisner told Airlock Alpha. "It was campy and the effects were not so good - this version is in no way a remake. Our version goes back to strips from '30s and we will update those and shoot the movie as if the strips were drawn today."

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Eisner Directing Dracula vs. Jack the Ripper Movie

Breck Eisner bounced back nicely from Sahara with this year's The Crazies. It didn't make a bunch of money, but it was a pretty good genre movie. And Sahara, of course, is one of the bigger flops of the past decade, a movie that not only didn't start a franchise for Matthew McConaughey, but was also linked to all sorts of improprieties, up to and including lawsuits between the producers and novelist Clive Cussler and bribing local governments where the film was shooting on location.

So, even though The Crazies was only a modest success, Eisner's probably happy not to be subpoenaed. He was linked to two other remakes in the near future, The Creature From the Black Lagoon and Flash Gordon, but now only Flash Gordon remains for him. And honestly, you don't want to be a guy who just directs remakes. So now it appears he'll do a comic book adaptation, helming Blood of the Innocent (before Escape from New York and The Brood, two more remakes). FearNet talked to the comic's creator, Mark Wheatley, who says that Eisner is working with writer Bill Marsilii on the script, and this may leapfrog Flash Gordon on the director's itinerary.

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New Director Emerges from 'The Black Lagoon'

It's been a crazy year for Carl Rinsch. The commercial director was at one point going to direct the Alien prequel, at least according to Tony Scott. Now that's his brother, Ridley's, gig. Then Rinsch grabbed 47 Ronin, the Keanu Reeves samurai movie. And it looks like Universal smells what the Rinsch is cookin', because The Los Angeles Times says he's now the new director of record on the update of The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

That's a pretty big project for a guy who hasn't directed a movie yet, don't you think? I mean, in light of the problems da U has had with The Wolfman, this is either a supreme vote of confidence or it's completely misguided, no offense to Rinsch, who is clearly a hot property at the moment. He replaces Breck Eisner (Sahara and the upcoming The Crazies remake), who was pulled off the project only to move on to a new remake, David Cronenberg's The Brood. Eisner's revision of Gary Ross' script has apparently also been scrapped, but I think we could have all saved Universal money by pointing out that Gary Ross is one of the great American screenwriters and Breck Eisner...well, his dad used to run Disney. Can't say much beyond that at this point; Sahara blew and wound up in court for a couple of years.

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Breck Eisner Updates 'Flash Gordon' and 'Black Lagoon' Remakes, Irritates Me

Oh, to be Breck Eisner. You recognize the last name, surely; he's the son of former Disney boss Michael Eisner, and I'm not saying that has anything at all to do with him landing in the director's chair, but his studio debut had a budget of $130 million. Sahara didn't make money and on top of that, was embroiled in a four-year legal match with writer Clive Cussler.

Most directors would probably aim for smaller projects on the heels of losing a studio money, but Eisner is hard at work putting together huge remakes of Flash Gordon and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. He's also finishing up The Crazies, another remake, which is due out in September. Incidentally, three remakes in a row should be the limit for any director. Eisner had updates on both Flash and Black Lagoon, telling Arrow in the Head, "I love them both, they're both big movies. I think I will push both of them forward at full pedal and hope one of them goes first."

"The thing about Flash is, you've got to throw away the 80s version of it. I want it to be intense, aggressive, gritty and real. For me it's about reinventing Flash - we're still staying true to the adventure origins of it, and the adventurous spirit in that movie, absolutely. It's this man brought to another planet and uniting the disperate groups on Mongo, but there is a gritty, intense, dynamic, active quality to the movie. Very modern. It's not camp."

(Shrug) I don't know what any of that means. I certainly haven't seen enough of Eisner's work to have an idea of what the film might look like, and all I really picked up on is it won't be as flamboyant as the one with the Queen soundtrack. Otherwise, all I see is a load of adjectives.

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