'Silver Surfer' Not Getting the Greenlight?
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Scripts, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
For the Silver Surfer fans dying to see his spin-off movie, this will come as a bitter disappointment. AMC's SciFi Scanner caught up with J. Michael Straczynski and asked him about the status of his Silver Surfer script. Not surprisingly, it is in the dead zone.
"Whether or not it ever gets made, I don't know, because they were kind of disappointed in how Fantastic Four 2 did. And given how this will be a subset of FF2 in terms of the marketing strategy, I think there is hesitation there about putting it forward. The script is pretty good, I like it, but whether or not it goes into production, I have no idea."
Silver Surfer would have taken place minutes after Fantastic Four 2 ended, and his surfboard raced back to his open arms. "You find out why Silver Surfer was there and what happened to him. We would have seen Galactus, his home world, what happened and him trying to get back there, because now that he's betrayed Galactus, he's concerned his home world might be in jeopardy."
And what about Galactus' appearence? He would no longer be a menacing cloud, a decision which annoyed everyone, but was done in order to reveal his comic-book self in the eventual spin-off. "In the script I come up with some ways to visualize him that are true to the original, but take it one step further using the current CGI technology that we have. So we would have seen him as a character on numerous occasions in the second movie, not inconsistent with the first distant shot of him in that that's just a way of concealing who and what he really is. Believe me, he would be not at all silly looking."
I find the Silver Surfer too goofy for anything but the comics page (and even then, he's pushing it), so I can't say I'm sorry that the adaptation is languishing. But I know a lot of people adore this character -- oddly, I'm thinking primarily of a man I used to sit next to on the train, who was always reading the latest Surfer issue. For him, and all the fans like him, I hope Fox relents and gives it the green light.
[via SuperheroHype.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-20-2008 @ 2:14PM
Greg said...
Well here we have the dreaded results of what I call "Machinations of Marvel". These are Hollywood interventions that go against the grain of what's made Marvel Comics characters such successes for almost 50 years now.
Anyone remember the first Punisher movie where they removed the skull from his uniform? You went through the entire movie not knowing who the heck he was. Remember the last Capt. America movie where they made the Red Skull an Italian fascist? Bombed didn't it? The first Hulk movie that got so psychological and artsy fartsy they forgot that what makes Hulk popular is that he's a rampaging monster caught up in the body of a peaceful scientist?
FF 2 didn't work because how do you introduce a character like the Silver Surfer and not reveal his origin? Why did they divert from the best 3 issue story arc in comic book history? It's simple, they got greedy and stupid and figured they could franchise before they solidified the main franchise. FF is cool but it should be a blockbuster franchise not hanging on by a thread.
Don't futz with the characters and stories too much and you'll have a hit Marvel movie!
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6-20-2008 @ 4:54PM
Rich Santoro said...
I agree with you... Spiderman, X-men, Ironman, Incredible Hulk were hits because they sought out the true canonical traits of the characters, storylines and themes that have workd best over the years... Plus the script was not campy or intentionally "comic-booky" like Spawn that had Martin Sheen HORRIBLY overacting...
Daredevil was a bomb because they made it about Ben Affleck... He does not fit the bill as Matt Murdock, so I was too distracted in it being Affleck and not the character... plus they had him doing his own fight scenes, which was a HUGE mistake. It should have been about Daredevil, and doing whatever it took to make the character look best...
Ghostrider was too hokey... Blade had the right amount of dark ominous (which the guy who played Blackheart actually captured), but the rest was brushed over, just to get the character on screen... That could have been so much better. Same with Punisher (Thomas Thane). Should have been much more dark and gritty (almost Crow-like).
FF4 had a similar problem here as well. Not solid and deep enough in the canon of what make the characters and the stories so great... more about the presentation of the actors, and it was a movie made as a comic book (almost like a Saturday Morning Cartoon)... not a comic book made as a movie.
X2 and even moreso X3 were just rushed and hammed together on screen. The character development, the internal dramas and even the action was all compromised to just splash the characters and the actors on screen again. I might say the same for SM3.
I would actually like to see a Incredible Hulk-style reboot for GR, DD, FF4 and redo X-men 3 (call it Uncanny X-men to break from the number sequences and move past the stupidy of X3). Hopefully Marvel can bring all of these into their studio and get it right...
6-20-2008 @ 2:25PM
Nicko said...
Really too bad FF2 was such an absolute turd. The only parts worth watching were the few minutes involving Silver Surfer, and those moments were well done I think (CG, dialogue etc). The FF family feud angle worked well in the first film, but spending over half of the 2nd movie focused on a delayed marriage while the world is about to be devoured? Come on! And now the Silver Surfer will suffer for it, bummer.
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6-20-2008 @ 2:57PM
Riley Freeman said...
i disagree. ff2 sucked because they made too much of a joke. both of them were that tone. not really serious. plus how can u take jessica alba serious? she needs to stick to being eyecandy.
she was wayyyy too young to be cast in this film in the character she played. if they had made it serious probably would have been more successful
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6-20-2008 @ 3:23PM
Greg said...
Well said Nicko.
What really bothers me now is that because Marvel has been so successful that ol' business model of 'make it cheaper-faster' may come into play and we'll get these half done Marvel movies trying to ride the momentum.
Marvel Comics stories are love stories wrapped up in super powers. When they miss that they miss the mark. Marvel Studios shouldn't be doing big spinoffs until their main pantheon is established which will take many years to come. Done right, Marvel will rule the box office for half a century.
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