More Flash Gordon News

SCI FI Channel's new series FLASH GORDON will make use of some pieces of the elaborate sets for SCI FI's miniseries TIN MAN, which is also filming in Vancouver, Canada. SciFi executive vice president for original programming, Mark Stern, said that reusing the sets will allow FLASH to create a rich look for the planet Mongo. FLASH GORDON, a 21st-century update of the classic comic-strip serial, begins shooting today and premieres on Aug. 10. "There are some elements of the villain in TIN MAN that are similarly dictatoresque in the villain Ming the Merciless on Mongo [in Flash Gordon]," Stern said at a recent press event. "The Wicked Witch in Tin Man definitely has this dictatorship thing going on. So her palace has this Albert Speer-like 1930s design, with Roman columns and fascinating big elaborate halls. So we could retool and repaint and change the glass, and it will be very distinguishably different." Eric Johnson (Smallville) is set to play the lead role. He said the FLASH GORDON set has a "retro-futurisitic feel" to it. "It's the same company making both shows, so whatever you can beg or borrow makes sense," he said. "We're shooting in Vancouver, same place, but this is a very different set. It's like if someone gave you the frame of a car, and you can easily put a new engine in it."