Complex sentence: Initially, producer De Laurentis wanted Italian director Federico Fellini to direct the picture; in the late 1930s, with most American comics banned in Mussolini's Italy, the young Fellini had been approached to write some new adventures for the popular Flash Gordon character.
Split into simpler sentences: Initially, producer De Laurentis wanted Italian director Federico Fellini to direct the picture. In the late 1930s, with most American comics banned in Mussolini's Italy, the young Fellini was approached to write some new adventures for the popular Flash Gordon character.