DBWI: Dino de Laurentiss' Flash Gordon

I really enjoyed Lucas' version of Flash Gordon because it modernized the concept from the old 1940's serials, and really liked the Art Deco-inspired design of the spaceships, too. And it didn't look hokey like the old serials, thanks to Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) doing some amazing effects shots with models. It was like seeing multiple episodes of the old Flash Gordon serials strung together, but it worked brilliantly and was not surprised it won a lot of Oscars, including multiple technical awards and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Interestingly, Star Children was a surprising success because the writers actually consulted with social scientists and people in the various hard science fields to create a surprisingly believable version of mystical Andrade civilization. So much so that besides the three seasons of the original series in the 1990's, the was a second series in 2005-2007 (one of the very first animated series to be produced with high-definition televsion in mind) and a third series starting this year in 2015, a joint venture with Toei Animation in Japan (using a new animation technology developed by Toei that looks like 2-D animation but is actually rendered like 3-D animation). Cheap it isn't, but that's why it's being shown on CBS.
 
Talking of cultural impacts earlier but does anyone think the "hawkhair" craze would have been as big in the 80's without Lucas at the film's helm?

I can recall my sister's hawkhair (I was still too young to fall victim) and of course is the infamous 1984 Eurovision Song Contest.
 
Probably not, but there were a lot of weird crazes in the 80s, so you'd probably have some other ridiculous style. Maybe some kind of "fake mane" style derived from the My Little Pony franchise? That was a serious surprise hit. "Fail me again and a head will roll: his!" Who would have expected little girls to get into something so genuinely dark? Or for it to become an all-ages hit?
 
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Here's something:
With the increased prevalence of pulp era Science fiction adaptations, would films like I, Robot and 2010 be made to try to get an audience for intelligent science fiction.
 
I don't know. Hollywood loves sequels, so 2010 seems likely, but I, Robot is really just an anthology with a frame story, which would make adaptation challenging at best, especially since each story needs a drastically different robot or robots. Without ILM grade effects, any screen adaptation would be doomed.
 
I don't know. Hollywood loves sequels, so 2010 seems likely, but I, Robot is really just an anthology with a frame story, which would make adaptation challenging at best, especially since each story needs a drastically different robot or robots. Without ILM grade effects, any screen adaptation would be doomed.

Though having Harlan Ellison as screenwriter helps.
 
As long as you keep him well away from the executives. The man just doesn't understand things like budget constraints, technical limitations or considering the audience.
 
I concur on the use of artificial wings at the time--I think Lucas looked at the earlier attempts to make "angel wings" in past movies and it looked just hokey and ridiculous. It wasn't until some 15 years after the Lucas-directed Flash Gordon came out that depicting the hawkmen from this continuity could actually have realistic-looking angel wings--all computer-generated, of course.
Fair enough. But how did you like all the other elements Lucas re-did in the "collectors" version of the DVD? I do not just mean special effects wise but also the others.
 
Fair enough. But how did you like all the other elements Lucas re-did in the "collectors" version of the DVD? I do not just mean special effects wise but also the others.

Some of those he was basically pressured into; I don't hold those against him. Seriously, MPAA, it's "inappropriate" for Dr. Zarkov to offer Vultan a deal for saving his city? Really, the only thing I object to that Lucas actually did by choice was the replacing of the victory parade and subsequent banquet (including Dale and Flash going off for some private time) at the end of the last film with a montage of scenes from around Mongo. The more focussed ending was much better.

I saw the gag reel at a con once; during one scene, Carrie Fischer and Lola Fallana simply couldn't do one particular action scene without tripping over or falling out of their costumes. So they pulled them off, sent them off to be fixed, and did a quick rehearsal in the buff. Totally nonchalant. The expressions on the other performers' faces were priceless.
 
Some of those he was basically pressured into; I don't hold those against him. Seriously, MPAA, it's "inappropriate" for Dr. Zarkov to offer Vultan a deal for saving his city? Really, the only thing I object to that Lucas actually did by choice was the replacing of the victory parade and subsequent banquet (including Dale and Flash going off for some private time) at the end of the last film with a montage of scenes from around Mongo. The more focussed ending was much better.

I saw the gag reel at a con once; during one scene, Carrie Fischer and Lola Fallana simply couldn't do one particular action scene without tripping over or falling out of their costumes. So they pulled them off, sent them off to be fixed, and did a quick rehearsal in the buff. Totally nonchalant. The expressions on the other performers' faces were priceless.

Well, what that version lost, it regained with deleted scenes
 
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