Taika Waititi’s upcoming Flash Gordon adaptation, which was originally set to be animated, will now be a live-action film.

• READ MORE: Baby Done review: Taika Waititi-produced Kiwi comedy about parenthood

According to producer John Davis, who has been attached to the project for some time, Waititi is currently in the process of penning his version of the space opera, based on the King Features comic strip created by Alex Raymond.

“Taika is writing it,” Davis told Collider in a new interview. “It was a movie that was a huge influence on him growing up. It is one of his favourite movies.

“He initially said to me, ‘Let’s do it animated.’ Then we got into it and started developing it and he said, ‘No, let’s do it live-action.’ I said, ‘Even better.’”

Waititi was first hired by Disney to take on the long-gestating project back in 2019, which was previously attached to directors like Matthew Vaughn and Julius Avery. The Thor: Love And Thunder filmmaker’s take is said to be more faithful to the original source material than that of the original ’80s live-action movie.

Flash Gordon was first created in 1934 by artist Alex Raymond and tells the story of a man who ends up on the planet Mongo fighting its dictatorial leader Ming The Merciless. The big screen version starred Timothy Dalton, Max von Sydow and Sam Jones as Flash; Queen provided the music.

Earlier this month, Waititi has called the upcoming Marvel movie Thor: Love And Thunder the “craziest” film he’s ever made.

The sequel to Thor: Ragnarok will be released on May 6 next year and will star Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Chris Hemsworth and more.

Meanwhile, Jemaine Clement has confirmed that he is working on an action-adventure comedy series with Waititi.

In a recent interview, Clement said that the show will feature long-form episodes, and is unlike anything that he has worked on before.