A month or so ago it was rumored that J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, had been signed to write the script for the Silver Surfer spin-off from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. At the time I was skeptical because JMS typically talks more about his projects than an anonymous announcement in the L.A. Times. Apparently, it turns out I was mistaken. Over the weekend Straczynski spoke about the Surfer movie, revealing some of the plot details we can expect with IGN.
Expect the Surfer movie to pick up right where the Fantastic Four sequel ended. The movie will then go back and explore the origins of the Surfer: who is he, why did he become the Silver Surfer, and what is he doing preparing worlds for destruction at the hands of Galactus. Of course, the answers to these questions are already well known to comic book fans with the Surfer being such an integral part of the Marvel Universe, but it’ll still be neat to see on the big screen.
As far as the big cheese, Galactus, JMS hinted that we’ll see more of the big guy in the Surfer movie: ”You don't want to sort of blow out something that big and massive for one quick shot in the first movie… Where you're showing the origin of the Surfer, that's where you do it; that's where you blow it out.”
What didn’t come over the weekend was confirmation over the rumor that Alex Proyas will direct the Surfer movie. Perhaps it’s still too far out on the horizon for Proyas or Marvel to commit things yet. For now, it seems the script is in capable hands, as JMS has also done some work recently with the Surfer in comic book form.
