Mike Hodges: Flash Gordon and Get Carter director dies aged 90

Mike Hodges, the director of films including Flash Gordon and Get Garter, has died aged 90.

His death was confirmed to the Guardian and US trade publication Variety by Mike Kaplan, a producer and longtime friend of Hodges.

The director reportedly died at his home in Dorset on Saturday. No cause of death has yet been announced.

Hodges' film credits include Croupier, The Terminal Man and 2003's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, his final feature film.

Brian Blessed, who starred in Flash Gordon, paid tribute, praising Hodges for his "powerful personality" and "brilliant imagination".

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World At One programme, Blessed said of Hodges: "(Flash Gordon) is the only film, apart from Henry V with Kenneth Branagh, that I raced to the studio to start filming.

"Hodges (had a) brilliant imagination, but his direction - mind-blowing. Great manner, great perception. The film was a breath of fresh air."

Writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet said: "A true master. A furious restless talent. An unassailable body of work. Loved the films. Loved the man."

"I loved this man so much." added Front Row presenter Samira Ahmed. "The metaphysical poet of British cinema and a generous, brilliant, kind and politically engaged man."

Born in Bristol in 1932, Hodges worked as a chartered accountant and spent two years serving on a Royal Navy minesweeper around fishing ports in the north of England.

His first job in the entertainment industry was working as a teleprompter operator for TV, which led him to producing and directing news and documentary series.

His first major feature film, released in cinemas in 1971, was an adaptation of Ted Lewis's novel Get Carter.

The movie starred Sir Michael Caine as a London gangster who seeks his own form of justice after his brother is killed in Newcastle.

Get Carter was a huge success, and prompted Hodges and Caine to reunite the following year for another film, Pulp.

One of the biggest films of his career, the space opera Flash Gordon, followed in 1980.

The movie saw warring factions of the planet Mongo unite against the oppression of Ming the Merciless. It starred Sam J Jones and Melody Anderson alongside Blessed and Timothy Dalton.

His other credits include the 1987 Mickey Rourke thriller A Prayer for the Dying and 1989's Black Rainbow, starring Rosanna Arquette.

Hodges' 1998 film Croupier, starring Clive Owen as a dealer in a gambling den who then gets roped into robbing it, failed to capture the UK box office when it was first released.

At that point, Hodges reportedly decided to retire, assuming his career was over. But the film was then released in the US to rave reviews and its success there prompted a second release in the UK.

Hodges concluded his career as a feature film director the same way he began it, with a gangster film.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, released in 2003, saw him reunite with Owen, who played a criminal hungry for revenge after the rape of his younger brother.

Hodges is survived by his wife, Carol Laws and his sons Ben and Jake.