Posted by Travis in General News | 4 comments
SILVER SURFER Spin-Off has Spun Out!
This is either good news or bad news for the most devoted of comic book fans. A spin-off film about Silver Surfer has been in gestation ever since the FANTASTIC FOUR sequel, which I personally felt was better than the first. In fact, despite it’s their many flaws, I actually enjoyed both Fantastic Four movies on a purely child-like level. Heck… I even own a copy of Roger Corman’s original cinematic rendition of the super hero team.
J. Michael Straczynski (NINJA ASSASSIN), the co-writer tapped to pen the film said in an interview with Collider.com that the underwhelming box office performance of FANTASTIC FOUR 2: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER is what caused the pull back from the SILVER SURFER project, which at one time had Alex Proyas’ (I ROBOT, KNOWING) interest in directing.
Straczynski states that his script had the spin-off picking up where FF2 left off, so in my own opinion… this may be a blessing. Many fans feel the story is “unfilmable” and are not fans of the cosmic surfer dude’s involvement in the second FF movie. However, and this is a BIG “if”… but, “if” done right, I think a stand alone film, or even limited franchise about the Silver Surfer could be really cool. It would have to begin with an origin story, as this is just as crucial to understanding the character as the origin story of Superman was to his movies.
I am most likely one of a very small minority that actually wants to see this project come to fruition, but there’s such a rich and fascinating story line with plenty of back story and creative sub-plots to explore, beginning with his origin which is directly connected to Galactus. This, I believe, is what had Proyas interested in the first place.
Granted, they’d have to make a far better attempt at doing Galactus justice than they did in FF2 (although some would say the “angry cloud” take was a prelude into the true character, whom they didn’t want to reveal just yet). In all honesty, SILVER SURFER would be a difficult, costly and risky project… but then again, people said LORD OF THE RINGS and WATCHMEN were unfilmable and look what happened.
Source: IGN
Your story reads like the Silver Surfer movie isn't going ahead, when in fact it is only J. Michael Straczynski's original screenplay that isn't going forward (since the Silver Surfer movie is in active development and will be fresh just like the new Fantastic Four will be fresh).
Silver Surfer has the potential to be one of the most epic comic book movies strictly because of the environment it would have to entail. All of the landscaping of interstellar travel would make for an epic look of a movie, lending itself to a larger budget and the possibility of a greater story to unfold. I would hope that this and Captain America would/will be the two movies they do the best with since they are my 2 favorite heroes out there.
Guys…guys…GUYS…whoa, slow down, back the bus up a second.
When I was asked about the Silver Surfer script, I responded about the one I'd written around the time that FF2 was launched, and was designed to pick up where that one left off.
When FF2 didn't do as well as hoped for, that script was set aside, but that has NOTHING to do with the Silver Surfer script that is NOW under development at Fox with other folks. As far as I know, that is proceeding apace. So the hysteria that's gripped the nets about "ohmygod the Surfer movie is dead!" is not correct, as I was again referring to only that one specific script tied into FF2, NOT what's being done now.
J. Michael Straczynski
Yes, thanks for the verification (assuming you're the real JMS).
http://www.silversurferfilm.com/news/rumor-contro...