BREAKING: After turning Kingsman: The Secret Service into a Fox hit, director Matthew Vaughn is circling the studio’s Flash Gordon project. Fox set that up last year, an adaptation of the pulp comic-strip hero that originally was scripted by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who worked on Star Trek 3. John Davis is producing with George Nolfi, after Davis tied down the rights from Hearst. The strip originated in 1934, with Flash pitted on the planet Mongo fighting its tyrannical ruler, Ming the Merciless. It was most famously adapted for the screen through the Buster Crabbe serials, unless you buy into Seth MacFarlane’s Ted hero worship of the 1980 campy Flash Gordon movie that starred Sam Jones as the character.

Vaughn is the go-to guy to launch franchises, which he has done with Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and now Kingsman, which is begging for a sequel. He’s currently engaged in producing Eddie The Eagle for Fox, with his Kingsman discovery Taron Egerton playing Eddie Edwards, the unlikely British competitor for Olympic glory in the ski jump.