Eric Johnson, best known for his role as Whitney Fordman on Smallville, has been cast in the title role in Sci Fi Channel's Flash Gordon series (see 'Sci Fi Plans Flash Gordon Series').  The series is now expected to premiere in August. 

A fellow Smallville alum, Rick Rosenthal, will direct the first two episodes. 

Those episodes will be written by executive producer Peter Hume (who was a supervising producer and occasional writer on Charmed).