New Movie News: ‘Flash Gordon’ ‘It’s a Small World’ ‘Lego Movie 2’ and ‘Frozen 2’

Here’s just some of the recent announced projects.

Twentieth Century Fox has just picked up the rights to the famous hero, Flash Gordon. John Davis (Chronicle) will be producing with Fox quickly hiring Star Trek writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to write the script.

Flash Gordon was first conceived in 1934 by artist Alex Raymond as a response to the popular Buck Rogers strip. The titular lead is a handsome Yale grad and polo player who, along with his lady friend Dale Arden and mad scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov, rocket off into outer space after Earth is attacked by meteors. They trace the meteors back to the planet Mongo, and battle its evil ruler Ming the Merciless.

It’s a Small World will move from ride to the big screen.

Disney first announced plans to turn Pirates of the Caribbean into a movie and fans mocked the decision. But after that experiment proved a big, big success, the Mouse will move ahead with Jared Stern writing the script based on his own pitch.

Stern was recently hired to write The Lego Movie 2 (with Michelle Morgan) and his other credits include The Internship and The Watch. He’s no stranger to Disney, having provided “additional story material” for Wreck-It Ralph and The Princess and the Frog.

Stern will also produce along with Turteltaub and The Lego Movie 2 producer Dan Lin. It almost goes without saying that the filmmakers have hopes It’s a Small World will launch a franchise. No word on when those dreams will come true, as Deadline says the It’s a Small World movie “will take awhile to come together.”

While Frozen has become the biggest earning animated film of all-time, Disney has yet to confirm plans for a sequel.

Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn admits the company hasn’t even begun to think about a sequel as The Hollywood Reporter and others wrote about Horn’s recent, revealing discussion with Bloomburg TV. Here’s the relevant sentence:

Horn told his audience that Disney’s sole focus at the moment was getting the Frozen musical ready for Broadway and that a sequel hadn’t even been discussed.

Broadway musicals can take almost as long as animated films to get together, so this makes sense. It’s just an adaptation/expansion of the original story that they know already works.