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Behold! Galactus Will Be Back in Silver Surfer Spin-Off!

by Alex Billington
February 27, 2008

One of the panels that we unfortunately missed last weekend at WonderCon was a spotlight on comic book author J. Michael Straczynski. In addition to his extensive comic book work, Straczynski is now diving into Hollywood, having scripted the upcoming Clint Eastwood film The Changeling and already working on three other scripts, including World War Z and a Silver Surfer spin-off. During Straczynski's panel at WonderCon, he briefly talked about the Silver Surfer movie and confirmed that the giant evil world eater Galactus would be featured in it.

Users on Newsarama's forums were in attendance and reported back on the details from the panel.

"For what the Silver Surfer movie entails Straczynski says it will cover the origin of the character. He said it will feature Galactus, noting that the latest Fantastic Four film held off on showing Galactus to reveal him for this film."

Most comic book fans may remember (or perhaps they've already rid themselves of that memory) last year's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where Galactus made an "appearance" in the form of a giant space cloud near the end of the movie. According to that report above, they might have held off on revealing Galactus because he will instead show up in this Silver Surfer spin-off that Straczynski is writing. Although most fans were quite disgruntled to find out that Galactus was nothing more than a cloud, after watching the movie, numerous discussions began regarding the possibility that the more human-like form of Galactus may yet still be seen and that he isn't really just a cloud after all.

A previous, somewhat contradictory report from Filmstalker points out that Straczynski said that the movie "picks up right where the FF movie left off and it's designed to answer the questions that were asked in the movie but really weren't dealt with there." However, that reported is from July 2007 and quite a bit could have changed, or it could simply be a misunderstanding. Whereas it might pick up right after the second movie, it will still probably focus on his origin, whether via flashbacks or something else.

Galactus and Silver Surfer Galactus is a supervillain and "cosmic entity" from that Marvel Comics universe and is part of the Fantastic Four series. He is a huge being recognized by his purple outfit and odd spiky helmet, which has brought up consideration as to whether the character looks too ridiculous to actually appear that way in a movie.

The Silver Surfer, also known as Norrin Radd, is a character that serves Galactus as his herald. Norrin used to live on his home planet, but when Galactus came to destroy it, he made a bargain to save the planet and in return would serve Galactus as his herald, traveling the galaxies searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. As part of the bargain, Galactus gave Norrin part of his powers, his silver surfboard upon which he travels, and his silvery look. In the comics, the Silver Surfer came to Earth and met the Fantastic Four who (as can be seen in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) encouraged him to fight back and betray Galactus.

IMDb lists Alex Proyas, of I, Robot, Dark City, and The Crow, as the director attached to the Silver Surfer movie. But we all know that IMDb's listings for rumored projects can't be trusted, especially considering this Silver Surfer movie hasn't been showing up on Marvel's list of upcoming productions. We're fairly certain that this movie is in production hell at the moment and probably won't be making any actual progress for a few years.

If everything falls into place, including J. Michael Straczynski's script, Alex Proyas as director, and an origin story as described, how do you think this would turn out? Much better than the Fantastic Four movies we've seen so far or not?

Filed under Movie News, Rumors

From around the web:

Curtis

The Fantastic Four 2 movie was blah it was fun to watch nothing spectacular, but it would be kind of kool to see a Silver Surfer movie.
Daniel

Alex Proyas, if he is indeed the director, will do a great job with the film. Dark City is a great film, at least I think so. As for the question of whether a Silver Surfer film would be much better than the Fantastic Four movies we've seen so far or not? YES! First one was okay, the sequel was DOA.
http://www.theaterhopper.com Tom Brazelton

As excited as I am to see a "human" version of Galactus on the big screen, Marvel is backpeddling away from Fantastic Four 2 so hard, it's causing a riptide. Basically, the director, the producers or whoever made a bad call by making Galactus a cloud in the movie, witnessed fan reaction, realized their mistake and said "But wait!..." It's a huge cop out - especially when Marvel is trying to network more of it's films together.
Fish

This would be a good movie if they stay true to the comics. Fantastic Four 2 destroyed both the Silver Surfer and Galactus. They same goes for any other comic book movie, if you stay true to the comic book or graphic novel then it will be a success but if you alter the story and characters of the comic books and graphic novels then it will be terrible.
http://www.DustyThomasOnline.com Dusty

Interesting idea... but if it is a sequel and the FF team is inolved... I would have to say FLOP. I found the other two entertaining, but I don't know how you can go from SS and Gal both being destroyed and then reintroducing them both as a sequel or continuation of FF2... My thoughts are they already fouled themselves up with the ending of FF2 and will have trouble re-engaging the Comic book fans. Then again.. lets have "Final Fantasy 3D: Flight of the Silver Surfer" ..... I can see it now... the gorgeous flight sequences in 3D, an invisible girl, and fire boy soaring over the auditorium .... WOW.. ok.. I think we found how they can save it.... hahhahaha... sorry Alex, could not resist
http://www.filmstalker.co.uk Richard Brunton

Oh dear lord, don't involve the Fantastic Four. To me those two characters just don't belong together. The Four are light hearted, episodical and the Surfer is darker, adult, showing the harsher realities of life. The creative line up is great, but to involve the Four would be a bad idea - separate them and let the Surfer follow his own path.
Brooklyn

Yes, the F4 are more light-hearted than the SS. But it respect for the part of Galactus being a dark cloud remember what Galactus really is. As a being who is both an abstract entity (e.g. Death, Eternity, et al) and a physical creature, Galactus' true form and nature are beyond the capability of mortal beings to comprehend. Despite being frequently illustrated as a giant, armored humanoid, each species perceives Galactus to be a form it can understand. Galactus has adopted the appearance of a roughly humanoid energy being on at least three occasions. So, when Galactus was shown as a cloud hovering over earth, I believe he was shown in his true form, to which the Silver Surfer may also see him. I believe a good voice for his character would be Kevin Grevioux (Raze) from the movie Underworld. He was the Lycan.
Poopy Man

I like the idea of a spin off. Personally, I like them to make as many marvel movies as physically possible. Silver Surfer is a well known character and definitely deserves a movie.