Flash Gordon: Dark Behind The Scenes Details

If you have seen Flash Gordon,Flash Gordon,The dialogue sounds weird or incoherent. The screenwriter wrote the script in English first. Then, the script went to Italian for the foreign crew to read. Finally, a non-native English speaker translated the screenplay back into its original language.

Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., known for works like Batman (1966) and King Kong (1976), said this.Batman(1966)King Kong (1976), the whole situation felt unreal:

[Producer Dino De Laurentiis] reads English better than many people know. But he translates all his scripts into Italian. We lived in Nantucket then. His translator was a woman whose name I forget. She could barely translate. If it said, "The tall, beautiful woman walked into the room," she would say, "Oh, what a beautiful cat."

When Semple told De Laurentiis the translations were wrong,the producer did not care.Semple told him, "I told him the translator was horrible; her translations are bad. He said, 'I do not want to be fooled by the words; I do not want to be fooled by written words. I want to know the story.'"

Picture a world where eitherKurt Russell or Arnold Schwarzenegger played Flash Gordon. Neither casting ever happened for different reasons. Russell got the part, but he thought the role was too simple—that was before he became famous.

Producers considered Schwarzenegger for the role, but De Laurentiis said no one would get the Austrian's thick accent. Instead, they hired Sam J. Jones after he appeared on The Dating Game.The Dating GameWhen discussing the casting, Jones said:

I went on and lost the date but got the job! Dino... I should say Mr. De Laurentiis, or a family member, was watching. They called me, and the next morning I went in with my manager for an interview to meet Dino and his staff.

Flash Gordonis wild and over-the-top fun. Who better to score the film than Queen? Producer Dino De Laurentiis first wanted Pink Floyd to create the soundtrack, which would change the film's tone a lot. Pink Floyd dropped out, but the members of Queen agreed the moment they heard about a Flash Gordon movie in pre-production.members of Queenthey heard the tale of a on board the moment they heard the tale of aFlash Gordonmovie in pre-production.

Supposedly, when the band's manager met with De Laurentiis andsuggested the group score the film, the producer asked, "Who are the Queens?" De Laurentiis listened to the group and was impressed. He signed them to write the music for Flash Gordon.Flash Gordon.

In line with the free production of Flash Gordon,Flash Gordon, the film's famous logo Freddie Mercury designed the logo. The singer studied graphic design in college and made Queen's logo. This task fit his skill set perfectly.

It would be odd to hear about a composer like Hans Zimmer drawing the logo for The Dark Knight,The Dark Knight,but with Mercury andFlash GordonThis pairing makes sense.Freddie Mercury designed the 'Flash Gordon' logo.

The biggest problem with Flash Gordon's production was the lack of a day-to-day filming schedule.Flash Gordon.The crew lacked a day-to-day filming schedule. This issue became prominent; director Mike Hodges called it out.Flash Gordon.The filmmakers made the only improvised $27-million movie ever.Actress Melody Anderson explained.:

In the first scene, people brought gifts, and one group brought eggs. Sam Jones said, "Flash Gordon was supposed to be a quarterback, so why don't I use one of these as a football?"

I thought, "Well, I'm the All-American Girl, shouldn't I be a cheerleader?" That is how the whole film went. There was no time to prepare. We just created and threw things in as we went along.

Hodges chose to use this style of unplanned filmmaking.tellingEmpire.:

I had a producer who spoke mangled English and a production designer who spoke none at all. Both, like Ming, seemed to come from another galaxy. Once I saw the film was out of my control in many ways, I relaxed and made it up as I went along. I loved it.

Lead actor Sam Jones took off during Flash Gordon's Christmas break and never returned.Flash Gordon.'s Jones did not return. He kept getting into fights during filming, which was a nightmare for the crew because they had to keep Jones's face consistent with continuity.

When it became clear Jones would not return to the set,Producer De Laurentiis told director Hodges"We'll keep going, with the very best stand-in you can find." Later, Jones sued De Laurentiis for breach of contract because the producer failed to honor his agreement to produce twoFlash Gordon.sequels.

The cast never acted overly for the cameras. They aimed to play everything straight, even though they knew the film was silly.

According todirector Mike Hodges.Producer Dino De Laurentiis was the only person who did not see the movie as kitschy:

The movie is funny because we did not try to make it campy. I am surprised people laugh because we did not aim for a funny film. De Laurentiis got upset when he showed the film and people laughed, thinking they were laughing at it instead of with it. He re-did the cheerleading scene; he wanted it serious.

After principal photography finished, actor Sam Jones vanished and kept his location secret. When the second-unit crew returned to shoot the visual effects scenes, they had to finish the film without Jones, which meant finalizing the audio.

The team performed voiceover work becauseDirector Mike Hodges explained:

After Christmas, I returned and finished the second unit work. I shot the scenes with the flying men and other special effects. I also filmed much more stuff with a stunt double for Sam. I re-voiced some lines of dialogue. Someone else impersonated Sam's voice. You would never know it wasn't him.

Director Mike Hodges and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. were not the first team on the film. De Laurentiis first asked Federico Fellini to work on the movie, but the director refused. So, the producer hired Nicolas Roeg, the director behind.The Man Who Fell to Earth. Long afterFlash GordonRoeg explained he spent a yearNicolas Roeg spent a year working on an unproduced script., saying:

It took me a long time, but then I attacked what I felt he was doing! It was amazing. I got so excited by the idea I told Dino, "Look, I'll leave and write. I think I know what I want to do with it..." It took me a year, almost exactly a year, to figure out how I wanted to make it.Flash Gordon. I turned back and told Dino, "This is it. It's ready."

Roeg's longtimewriting partner, Allan Scott, toldEmpireexplained the writing process behindFlash Gordon:

Nic liked the idea that the bubbles were for kids, but the images were starkly erotic. Nic's version became a comic book story for adults. Ming was a god. Flash and Dale were Adam and Eve; Ming was an evil deity chasing them across the universe.

Ming's ambition was to conquer the universe by destroying populated worlds, leaving no survivors except chosen females with whom he would populate their world in his image.

Max Von Sydow stars in many amazing movies, often picking different, strong roles. He rarely plays subtly, which fits Flash Gordon perfectly.Flash Gordon. Sydow earned award nominations for his parts in films likeThe ExorcistandExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close; director Mike Hodges said Sydow threw himself intoFlash Gordon.

Hodges toldEmpire, "I have never seen an actor have such a good time as Max playing Ming. He cracked his finger joints and did little jigs; he enjoyed every moment."

Bill Pearson handled the miniatures forThe production team used real foliage to build miniature trees for Flash Gordon.. Instead of calling in his work on the campy film, he made interesting designs, like when Flash visits Dr. Zarkov's greenhouse. For the miniature, Pearson built tiny trees from hedges, making them one of the few living pieces in the film.

Pearson describedto Futurismhis work making miniatures forFlash Gordon:

Everyone familiar with theFlash GordonStory knows, Flash and Dale meet Dr. Zarkov when their plane crashes near his lab. Martin and I built Zarkov's greenhouse and the surrounding grounds. Richard Conway wanted us to build the miniature trees from scratch, so we searched the studio grounds for the right foliage.

We found these bushes outside the producer's office. Using sheet-metal cutters, we snipped these bushes for about thirty minutes. The producer got a clearer view of the studio once we finished!

Before changing how movies are made forever, George Lucas wanted to make aFlash GordonLucas wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie because he grew up watching the 1936 serials. He heard De Laurentiis was making the film, so he approached the producer and asked to direct.De Laurentiis firmly objected.and said Federico Fellini would direct.

Lucas ignored this and madeStar Wars IV: A New Hope, an homage to theFlash Gordonserials. Lucas used the same title crawl and wipes. Lucas also felt inspired to use "Episode IV" because as a child, he had to watch non-sequential episodes ofFlash Gordon.

Producer Gary Kurtz later toldEmpire, "We decided we were making aFlash Gordon-type adventure and we're coming in at Episode IV... we're just racing through the story, not explaining anything."

Prince Vultan and his hawkmen are some of the weirdest parts ofFlash Gordon. Their attack on Mingo City shows poor visual effects at the time. These characters' costumes, mixing Roman gladiator armor with giant bird wings, seemed impossible to wear while sitting.

Actress Melody AndersontoldStarlog Magazineabout her co-stars' uncomfortable costumes:

They could not sit down; the wings dug into their backs. During breaks, you saw these guys lying on their stomachs with wings, looking ready to take off. It was a funny sight.

When you listen to theFlash Gordonscore, Queen clearly worked outside their style. Instead of bombastic rock songs fueled by Freddie Mercury's howl, the group focused on upbeat tracks using dialogue snippets.

According toguitarist Brian May, the curious tracks were what the band aimed for, explaining:

We saw 20 minutes of the finished film and thought it very good and over the top. We wanted a real soundtrack. A rock group has not done this type of thing before; otherwise, it has been toned down, and they have been asked to write mushy background music. We got the license to do what we liked, as long as it matched the picture.