Twentieth Century Fox has secured the rights to Flash Gordon from Hearst Entertainment, with John Davis producing and Star Trek 3 scribes J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.  First published 80 years ago in a sci-fi adventure comic strip from Alex Raymond, the title hero is a handsome athlete and Yale grad who rockets to the planet Mongo with his faithful companions to put a stop to the evil ruler, Ming the Merciless.  George Nolfi penned a treatment of the reboot and is now on board as producer.  Hit the jump for more.

Word of Fox's Flash Gordon grab comes courtesy of Heat Vision.  There's currently no news as to which direction the reboot will go, or what exactly the tone might be.  One thing's for certain, there's plenty of source material to explore and mine for an obvious film franchise.  Most of Gordon & Co.'s travels take them across the planet Mongo where they explore diverse environments and interact with characters such as Prince Barin of the forest kingdom, Queen Frigia of the ice kingdom, and Prince Vultan of the flying Hawkmen just to name a few.  The property was perhaps most famously adapted in Mike Hodges' 1980 feature starring Sam J. Jones in the title role.  While it's unfortunate that the iconic rock band Queen is no longer around to liven up the reboot's soundtrack (which had quite the presence in the aforementioned film), it does help Fox to have a clear slate for a 21st century adaptation.

Be sure to let us know what you think about the reboot in the comments below, and feel free to suggest your casting choices for the principal characters.  For those of you who haven't watched Flash Gordon (which I highly recommend if only for cultural awareness), here's the film's trailer, plus my favorite line of dialogue just for fun: