Flash Gordon comes alive in 4K for jam-packed 40th anniversary box-set

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Gordon's alive?? That's right, and in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of FLASH GORDON, the film has been scanned from the original 35mm negative to produce a 4K restoration which will be released in a jam-packed box-set later this year. Based upon the classic comic-strip by Alex Raymond, the film follows Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol) as he takes football star Flash Gordon (Sam Jones) and travel agent Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) into space to get to the bottom of a series of strange natural disasters which have been plaguing the Earth. Upon their arrival on the planet Mongo, they find that Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow) has been attacking Earth out of pure boredom, and it's up to Flash Gordon, along with the Hawkmen, to save the day.

The 40th Anniversary 4K restoration of FLASH GORDON underwent a meticulous manual restoration to repair all manner of print damage. The audio was scanned from the original track negative and also underwent restoration, followed by a colour grading and a few VFX tweaks to remove strings in scenes where they were visible. Director Mike Hodges approved of the restoration and said the following in a statement:

I'm very grateful to STUDIOCANAL for this brilliant 4k restoration. The restoration captures perfectly the vivid colours of the sets, skies and costumes. It also corrects some of the problems encountered with the special effects system we used. With Chroma key compositing we could insert skies, rocket ships, hawk-men, pretty well whatever we wanted, into the blue backing built into the studio sets. The problems came later when we had to eliminate, for example, the wires used on the hawk-men. We were eventually successful but even then some 35mm prints were variable and the wires would be back again. With this new restoration that problem is thankfully laid to rest. Of course Chroma key is primitive by the side of the current process, CGI (Computer Generated Imaging). That said I'm pleased we stuck with the old fashioned system. CGI would have been too slick. After all Flash Gordon was a cartoon strip from the 1930s brought back to life on celluloid some five decades later.

The 4K restoration of FLASH GORDON comes will arrive in two versions, a two-disc set and a five-disc Collector's Edition. Here are the special features on both sets:

DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY

• BRAND NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM, SUPERVISED AND APPROVED BY DIRECTOR MIKE HODGES
• New Lost in Space: Nic Roeg's Flash Gordon (also iTunes extra)
• Audio commentary with Mike Hodges
• Audio commentary with Brian Blessed
• Behind the scenes of Flash Gordon
• Stills gallery (also iTunes extra)
• Storyboards gallery (also iTunes extra)
• Original theatrical trailer

DISC TWO – BLU-RAY

• Interview with Mike Hodges
• Interview with comic book artist Alex Ross TBC
• Interview with screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. TBC
• Episode 24 of Flash Gordon (1979-1982): The Survival Game / Gremlin's Finest Hour
• Sam Jones's acting start
• Entertainment Earth on Flash Gordon merchandise
• Bob Lindenmayer discusses deleted scenes and original endings
• 35th Anniversary Greenroom
• 35th Anniversary reunion featurette
• Renato Casaro extended interview
• Brian Blessed anecdotes
• Melody's musings
• On the soundtrack (Brian May & Howard Blake)
• Easter Eggs

THE FIVE-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION INCLUDES

• The 4K Blu-ray plus two Blu-ray discs
• BONUS BLU-RAY DISC OF LIFE AFTER FLASH, the 2017 feature documentary celebrating the film and it's star, directed by Lisa Downs
• ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK CD by Queen & Howard Blake
• 32 page booklet
• 16 page Titan mini book (The Story of Flash Gordon)
• Reproduced booklet of the first strip of original comic books
• Poster of original artwork
• 4 artcards of various incarnations of Flash film posters across the years
• 1 sew on 'Flash patch'

Damn, that should keep FLASH GORDON fans busy for a little while. StudioCanal will be releasing The 40th Anniversary FLASH GORDON set on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, Steelbook, DVD, and Digital on August 3, 2020 in France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.