I still don’t have a sense of Breck Eisner as a filmmaker (Sahara was too rote to be conclusive), but I’m very sure he’s not as skilled a workman as Mike Hodges; if I’m wrong, and he doesn’t bungle Gary Ross’s interesting rethinking of Creature of the Black Lagoon (or, after that crime is committed, Ray Wright’s formula dumbing-down of The Crazies), then I’ll give him a shot at making a joyously knowing slab of schlock out of Alex Raymond’s inherently goofy Flash Gordon.
With Neil Moritz producing (for Sony), there’s at least the possibility that we’ll get another Stealth (which I’m still obsessed with three years after it inexcusably failed to hasten the manufacturing of sentient aircraft – for shame!). Frankly, Stealth is the kind of stupid to which Eisner and Mortiz should be aspiring, though I doubt Sony is eager to burn $130 million for a maybe $60 million ROI (domestic). Still, ain’t my money! Fuck it up righteous, boys! And get Sam J. Jones on the horn pronto! (Oops, the really awful Sci-Fi Channel miniseries beat ’em to it!)
That said, I’d prefer they leave the Queen music out of this. Perhaps they could find a way to transpose Toto’s Dune noodlings onto whatever this is going to be. Best case scenario: Eisner drops The Crazies and does this after Creature.