History Trivia / FlashGordon1980

** Vultan's line "''GORDON'S ALIVE!!!''" is regularly quoted as a triumphant cry, and has become a {{Catchphrase}} of Creator/BrianBlessed himself. In the actual movie, however, Vultan expresses the line with (for Brian Blessed) quiet incredulity ("Gordon's ''alive''?!"). (The catchphrase is probably better remembered from the sound clip incorporated in the Queen song, in which an echo effect is used. It also seems to be conflated in the popular imagination with Vultan's later and similarly iconic cry of "''DIVE!!!''")

*** Roeg's version would have seen [[Music/{{Blondie}} Deborah Harry]] as Priness Aura and Creator/KeithCarradine as Ming. One of his proposals was to excise the trademark {{cliffhanger}}s and melodrama, seeing Flash as more of "a metaphysical messiah".

* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: Ornella Muti and Mariangela Melato, who portrayed Princess Aura and Kala respectively, dubbed themselves in the Italian dub of the movie.

* DarkhorseCasting: Sam J. Jones was cast after Dino [=De Laurentiis=]' mother-in-law saw him on an episode of ''Series/TheDatingGame''. The filmmakers were banking on casting an unknown, following Creator/ChristopherReeve's success as Film/{{Superman}}.

** Vultan's line "''GORDON'S ALIVE!!!''" is regularly quoted as a triumphant cry, and has become a {{Catchphrase}} of Creator/BrianBlessed himself. In the actual movie, however, Vultan expresses the line with (for Brian Blessed) quiet incredulity ("Gordon's ''alive''?!). (The catchphrase is probably better remembered from the sound clip incorporated in the Queen song, in which an echo effect is used. It also seems to be conflated in the popular imagination with Vultan's later and similarly iconic cry of "''DIVE!!!''")

** When it was in development in the early Seventies, Creator/GeorgeLucas planned to acquire the film rights with the adaptation planned to be his first film since ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', only to realise that Dino de Laurentiis had bought the rights. However, Lucas eventually evolved his planned film adaptation into ''Franchise/StarWars'' and the rest is history.

* AllStarCast: [[Creator/BrianBlessed BRIAN BLESSED]], Creator/MaxVonSydow, Creator/TimothyDalton and many other 80s stars packed and ready.

* DoingItForTheArt: Playing Vultan was Creator/BrianBlessed's lifelong dream.

* FakeAmerican: Melody Anderson is Canadian.

** Creator/BrianBlessed improvised the scene where Vultan gooses Dale. Melody Anderson's reaction is genuine.

*** Roeg's version would have seen [[Music/{{Blondie}} Deborah Harris]] as Priness Aura and Creator/KeithCarradine as Ming. One of his proposals was to excise the trademark {{cliffhanger}}s and melodrama, seeing Flash as more of "a metaphysical messiah".