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Breck Eisner Updates Flash Gordon and Black Lagoon Remakes

by Alex Billington
April 14, 2009
Source: Arrow in the Head

Breck Eisner has a lot of remakes on his plate - he's shooting The Crazies in Georgia right now, and is attached to direct both the Flash Gordon remake and the Creature from the Black Lagoon remake once he's finished. We've heard tidbits about both projects previously, but Eric at Arrow in the Head got a full update from Eisner on both of them. Unfortunately, neither project is ready to go, but the writers on each are working hard to get a script ready for studio approval. Eisner says, "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."

We first announced that Eisner was remaking Flash Gordon last May. Sony then hired two writers, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (of the upcoming Dracula Year Zero), who Eisner says have been working on the story for the last fix or six months. "They went to draft just as we started shooting, and they're going to get to me a draft at wrap. I'll read it and do notes and we'll do a polish on that and give it to the studio a couple months from now." As for the direction he wants to take this version of Flash Gordon in?

"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 disparate groups on Mongo, but there is a gritty, intense, dynamic, active quality to the movie. Very modern. It's not camp."

And as for Eisner's Creature from the Black Lagoon remake, which we've actually heard quite a bit about before, Eisner also provided a good update on the direction he wants to take that remake in.

"I want it to be scary. It's a bigger movie, so it's not an R rated scary, it's gonna be a PG-13 scary. Creature takes you to a place you've never been before, it's one of the last untamed places on the edge of the Earth where you find this creature that has been living and hiding there forever, basically. It's definitely going for a dark adventure tone, but I want it to be scary."

Last we heard, Eisner wasn't the only director being considered for The Creature from the Black Lagoon, even though he had originally been locked for the gig when it was first announced. But as he said at the start, I'm sure he'll keep working on both projects as long as he can, putting as much energy and effort as he can into both (while also simultaneously shooting another film), and see which one ends up getting the greenlight with his name attached. I can't say I'm familiar with Eisner's strengths to say which I'd prefer to see him end up on (maybe Black Lagoon?), but either way, I'm glad to hear they're both moving along.

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