Flash Gordon and the Direct Comparison?

A little while ago, I came across news that the SciFi channel is planning to begin production on a "Flash Gordon" TV show. Most of the commentary that I noticed was worried that "contemporary retelling" in the press release amounts to a warning that the series will inappropriately try to emulate the new "Battlestar Galactica"... but I found myself wondering about one other possibility, that this series just might be compared to the upcoming Star Wars TV series in terms of swashbuckling action on fanciful planets. I'm not quite certain how much weight to attach to the rumours that George Lucas would have just remade Flash Gordon if he'd managed to secure the rights for it in the early-mid 1970s, but at times I do have the dark suspicion that some people need something new to hold up above Star Wars...