Mike Hodges

Hodges began his career in British television documentary and current-affairs production before moving into feature filmmaking, breaking through with a hard-edged crime drama that established his reputation for unsentimental genre work.

Best known for the hard-edged crime thriller Get Carter, Hodges took Flash Gordon in the opposite direction entirely — full, knowing camp spectacle rather than straight-faced space opera. He came to the project after the original director departed partway through pre-production.

The film has since become a beloved cult classic despite a mixed critical reception on release, and Hodges continued directing sporadically across a wide range of genres afterward.