If I were casting Flash Gordon...

You know what I think would be really cool?  A modern Flash Gordon trilogy that stuck close to the source material, but treated it more like a fantasy epic then a cheesy old science fiction.  Kind of like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with more rocketships.  Why not have Peter Jackson direct it?  While I'm daydreaming, here's a list of actors I'd like to see play some of the main roles.  Let's start with the main antagonists.

Ming the Merciless:

Flash, Dale, and Emperor Ming

Speaking of 'Lord of the Rings' I see Hugo Weaving as perfect for this role.  He always has a sort of sophisticated menace about him, even on the rare occasion that he's playing a good guy.  Shave his head and slap a Fu Manchu mustache on that guy and you have the perfect Ming.

Hugo Weaving

Princess Aura:

Princess Aura and Flash

After 'Tron: Legacy' and 'Cowboys and Aliens' I thought Olivia Wilde was going to be a real breakout star in genre movies.  She hasn't really done anything that caught my attention since then, but I would love to see her play a villain.  Something about those wide eyed stares she's always giving the camera is simultaneously A). Really hot - and - B). Just a little bit creepy.

Olivia Wilde

Let's move on the the supporting cast shall we?

Prince Barin:

Prince Barin and the Forest Men of Mongo

One of the few things I liked about the either so-bad-it's-good or so-bad-it's-actually-really-bad 1980's Flash Gordon was former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin.  There's something about that suave British-ness combined with forest swashbuckler that works so well for the character.  So who's an ex Bond actor to take up the mantel?  Answer, there really isn't one.  Pierce Brosnan would have worked, but he's a little old for Barin now.  And the tough guy thug thing Daniel Craig has going as Bond just wouldn't wok at all.  I now direct your attention to 2011's 'X-men: First Class'.  This movie brought the X-men back to the time-period the X-men were created in: Cold War era 1960s.  They were doing there absolute best to be a James Bond movie with mutants.  Michael Fassbender's take on a younger Magneto was to play him as if he were Bond.  I see him as a good fit for Baron.

Michael Fassbender

Another option would be to simply bring back Steve Bacic who was pretty fantastic as Barin in the 2007 Flash Gordon TV series.

Steve Bacic

Prince Thun:

Prince Thun and Flash Gordon

This one took a little thinking, but I think Michael Dorn of Star Trek fame would be a good match for an older and wiser take on the Prince of the Lion Men.

Michael Dorn

King Vultan:

Princess Aura and King Vultan

So I keep going back to actors from the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, but I could see John Rhys-Davies -Gimli - as the King of the Hawkmen.  

John Rhys-Davies

 If he proved unavailable, another Dwarf from Middle Earth comes to mind: Richard Armitage - Thorin Oakinshield - would work as well if not better.

Richard Armitage

Queen Fria:

Flash and Queen Fria

Okay, last time using a Lotr actor, I promise.  But Cate Blanchett's Lady Galadriel would be a perfect match for the icy Queen of the land of Frigia.

Cate Blanchett

So this brings us to our main cast.  And this is the hard part.

Doctor Hans Zarkov:

Dr. Zarkov

One actor comes to mind.  And yes, he was in a Peter Jackson Movie.  No. NO!  Put that cauldren of hot tar and those bags of feathers DOWN!  Down.  Good reader.  I'm talking about German actor Thomas Kretshmann, who played Captain Engelhorn in the 2005 'King Kong'.  Engelhorn was, in my opinion, one of the coolest characters in the movie.  And Zarkov is arguably the coolest in the main trio of Flash Gordon heroes.  Thomas Kretshmann also had a blink-and-you-miss-it role as Baron Strucker in Marvel's 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'.  Zarkov has a rather menacing introduction as a european Mad Scientist, and 'Age of Ultron' proves Kretshmann has that menace.

Thomas Kretshmann

So.  Now we just have...  

Flash Gordon and Dale Arden.

Flash and Dale

I've run out of ideas.  I always do when I get to this point.  In the original comic strip Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are more or less blank slate characters.  And it works.  They are our veiwpoint characters, every-man type people we can identify with and project ourselves overtop of.  They are a delivery mechanism for the fantastic world, the quirky side characters, and the adventures that happen in the story.  But that's something that's hard to adapt for a movie.  So I find myself returning again to the 2007 Flash Gordon TV show.

I'm sure Eric Johnson would be willing to return to the role of Flash.  He did it for this animated short after all.  And if we're bringing back 2007's Flash why not bring back Gina Holden as Dale too?

Eric Johnson

Gina Holden

Well, you've heard me ramble long enough.  What do you geek out about so much you daydream about future movie adaptations of?  If you have a guilty pleasure you'd like to see remade as a big budget movie, let me know about it in the comments.