Mike Hodges, Flash Gordon Director, Dead at 90
British filmmaker Mike Hodges, who was best known to audiences for directing the cult film Flash Gordon among other movies, has passed away. Hodges died in Dorset on Saturday, December 17th. He was 90 years old. Variety brings word of his death, revealing that his friend and producing-partner Mike Kaplan confirmed the news. Hodges got his start working in television, writing scripts for TV shows and TV movies before making his way into television as both a screenwriter and a director.
Having cut his teeth with television thrillers like Suspect and Rumour in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hodges went on to make his feature film directorial debut with the 1971 classic Get Carter. Adapted from the novel by Ted Lewis, the film marked a major movie in the career of Michael Caine and has since been routinely listed by the BFI on the Top 100 British Films of All-Time. Hodges and Caine would go on to collaborate once again with the 1972 movie Pulp. The filmmaker would continue to dabble in crime stories later in this career, working with Clive Owen on both 1998's Cruopier and 2003's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.
Though he spent most of his career working in that subgenre, Hodges is perhaps best known to many audiences members for directing the campy, box office bomb Flash Gordon. Starring Sam J. Jones and Max von Sydow, based on the King Features comic strip, and featuring a soundtrack by Queen, the film was a success in the UK but bombed in the United States, paving its way to becoming the cult classic that it is now.
"I met Dino (De Laurentiis, producer) and said 'look, I'm totally the wrong director'," Hodges previously told Yahoo about his time making the movie. "I didn't know Flash Gordon, I didn't know anything about American comics, I read Beano and Dandy. Then Nic and Dino fell out and Dino, for reasons I never quite understood, decided that he wanted me to do [the first film]. I resisted…he talked me into it. I'm glad he did, because I enjoyed making it and it's given a lot of pleasure to people over the years."
Another major movie from Hodges career is the 1974 movie The Terminal Man, one of the early adaptations of a novel from Jurassic Park and Andromeda Strain writer Michael Crichton. Hodges also dabbled further in horror, having been hired to write and direct Damien – Omen II, only to be fired from the production.
Hodges is survived by his wife Carol Laws, two songs, Ben and Jake, and five grandchildren. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends during this time.
(CoverPhoto by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)