J. Michael Straczynski is a busy man, and rightfully so.
He’s finishing up Forbidden Planet, working on a Ron Howard project based on the Doc Smith books called Lensmen, he just signed on with Bruckheimer for a contemporary American Civil War project and he’s writing a pilot for Fox television. (Don’t worry, it will be a quality pilot and Fox will shelve, cancel or rearrange the thing like they do with most quality projects that come their way!)
Aside from that, there was also the Silver Surfer project he was working on…
If you thought you were waiting patiently for J. Michael Straczynski’s Silver Surfer project to adorn the silver screen, you may need to take a double dose of patience meds. (Silver Surfer… Silver screen… that just came out, with no pun intended. But I’ll take whatever credit my write-o’s bring up!)
Because of the mediocre response to that craptacular piece of work called Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Fox is basing judgment on that to place JMS’s project on hold for the moment.
For some reason they think that the p-poor performance of FF4 2 brings into question the premise of a Silver Surfer movie rather than recognizing that the movie as a whole, not the characters, is what doomed the project. I have to wonder who the editors or creative controlling factors were in this 2nd chapter of the FF verse, considering how popular and stalwart the comic was, to be taken down a notch by a movie?
JMS’s Silver Surfer script would have picked up where FF 2 left off, but now it seems that it would need to be its own little world not associated with the Fantastic Four world.
That makes sense, considering the foul after-taste that 2nd movie left with me.
For now, there are a couple of years left in Fox’s option with JMS for writing 2 more projects but nothing has popped up yet.
So for now, if you’re a Silver Surfer fan, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. Maybe a bit more than a bit longer, but it is what it is.
source: Collider.
UPDATE 11/25/09 4 hours after publishing:
Well that was quick. So much for my editorial rant!
The premise that the Silver Surfer movie is dead has been ixnayed by JMS himself…
JMS is not involved in the newest incarnation of the Silver Surfer movie and here is an excerpt from the correcting source on whether the film is dead or not:
Now, J. Michael Straczynski has personally clarified the issue to correct the mistake, and has posted this clarification on a number of websites running the story:
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
Whilst JMS is not currently actively involved with the new film, he has confirmed (to his knowledge) that the film is still proceeding
That’s a direct quote from Silver Surfer Film website. I can’t help but wonder if they’re just trying to keep interest alive in the project whilst it does sit idling? Just wondering out loud.
