Taika Waititi drafted in to try and make 'Flash Gordon' animated movie

Flash Gordon hasn't been seen on the big screen since Brian Blessed incredulously bellowed 'Gordon's alive?!' back in 1980.

But that could be about to change, with news that Thor: Ragnarok helmsman Taika Waititi has been tasked with the job of 'cracking' plans to make a new animated movie around the intrepid hero.

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Fox and Disney are behind the plans, according to Deadline, though it's not yet clear whether he'll be writing or directing the project, or overeeing it from a production standpoint.

A cinematic reboot of Flash Gordon, who first emerged in the 1930s, written and drawn for comic books by artist and cartoonist Alex Raymond, has been mooted for years.

The likes of Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn and Julius Avery, who made war-horror Overlord for J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot, have been linked to it in the past.

But now the much in demand Waititi could be the one who carries it into the end zone.

The original movie, produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by Mike Hodges, found Sam J. Jones as the naive American football star Flash accidentally thrust into intergalactic conflict with Max Von Sydow’s Ming The Merciless.

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With an iconic soundtrack from Queen, it’s a bona fide, ultra-camp cult classic.

Waititi, meanwhile, is currently in the process of finishing up his latest project Jojo Rabbit, a comedy-fantasy-drama in which he plays the imaginary friend of the young boy in Nazi Germany, who takes on the form of Adolf Hitler.

Also starring Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, Thomasin McKenzie and newcomer Roman Griffin Davis, it's due out in October.