‘Flashman’ Movie in the Works at Fox (EXCLUSIVE)

Fox is going back to the 1830s and is developing “Flashman,” a movie based on the period novels by George MacDonald Fraser and setting it up with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free and Peter Chernin’s Chernin Entertainment.

The series was first published in 1969 and centers on Sir Harry Paget Flashman, who first appeared as the bully in the influential 1857 novel “Tom Brown’s School Days.” The Flashman character appeared in a dozen of Fraser’s novels and was portrayed by Malcolm McDowell in the 1975 film “Royal Flash.” The character is an antihero who often runs from danger but usually winds up being acclaimed as a hero.

Daria Cercek is overseeing the project for the studio.

Chernin is a producer on Fox’s Melissa McCarthy comedy “Spy,” directed by Paul Feig. Scott directed “The Martian,” which stars Matt Damon and opens Nov. 25.

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