Well, since the initial announcement that 20th Century Fox were working on a Silver Surfer film, there has been absolutely zero new developments worth writing about. Except, perhaps, until now.

CHUD recently reported that Marvel Studios is actively offering writers and directors their pick of characters to be brought to the big-screen as small scale movies in the range of 20 to 40 million dollars. While Silver Surfer isn’t mentioned, other characters such as Dr. Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Dazzler and Power Pack were.

The idea is that Marvel want to be able to produce many super-hero films but with less financial risk, allowing Marvel (and Disney) to explore new ways of getting their brand into the market.

Marvel President Kevin Fiege also confirmed to Movieweb recently that the intention is to release two Marvel superhero movies every year.

Says Fiege:

“…certainly we are looking at the next wave. We are going to do two films a year starting in 2011. What is our post Avengers film in 2013 or 2014? There are a lot of characters and meetings going on right now.”

The indication that many smaller movies will be made at 20-40 million seems to apply to third tier Marvel characters. Is Silver Surfer considered a third tier character? My obviously biased answer is “no” especially in context with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer raking in more than $150M above its budget. I would hope that the powers that be don’t slot it in as a second or third tier character as a 20-40 million Silver Surfer film simply wouldn’t work for this particular character.

So where are we at with the Silver Surfer film? Who knows. The only “hint” that anything might be happening was a slight update one month ago to the IMDB status for the film. I say “slight” because the update was merely a second reiteration that the film is “In active development at Fox.”

Back in September it was reported that the estate of Jack Kirby had issued termination of copyright notices to Marvel, Disney and any studio that produces films based on characters created or co-created by the late Jacob Kurtzberg (Jack Kirby). The characters impacted by the termination notices include the iconic Captain America, the X-Men, Hulk, and of course, the Silver Surfer.

The basic purpose of the Kirby lawsuit was to place the Kirby Estate in a position to be able to negotiate with Marvel over their terms to continue publishing comics based on Kirby’s work which, in turn, would extend into Marvel/Disney’s use of those properties in film.

If the Kirby Estate’s claims are found valid, word is they would regain their copyright ownership to those characters in 2014. Obviously this wouldn’t have an impact on the current Silver Surfer movie, but it could impact future movies if the film’s were to evolve into a franchise (and let’s hope they do!). It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t get made, it simply means Kirby’s Estate would be in a position to influence their development and, obviously, reap more financial reward from them, something the studios don’t want as an additional financial burden.

It’s taken a few months, but today Marvel formally announced that they’ve lodged their own lawsuit to counter the Kirby Estate’s claims. You can read the entire lawsuit after the jump, but in a nutshell they are seeking, as would have been expected, to obtain judicial approval that the notices of termination are invalid.

Read more…

Sideshow Collectibles' "Silver Surfer Comiquette"

Sideshow Collectibles are set to release an awesome new Silver Surfer comiquette with their December 17th Newsletter. They’ve released a promotional video which gives you glimpses at the statue alongside a cool music track (screenshot from the video above).

Personally, I’m not sure I like the cosmic power/stream effect on the hands. The pose perhaps could have been more bad-ass action oriented instead of grace oriented, but the detail of his physique still looks amazing. My view on the detracting elements may change once I hold the statue in my hand or see a few more images.

Unfortunately I’ve searched but been unable to find full specifications. To get all the details and to ensure you don’t miss out on nabbing one if it turns out to be a Limited Edition item, you’ll need to sign up for Sideshow’s newsletter. At the time of writing this post, signing up will give you a $5 e-coupon code which will, obviously, save you $5 on your first order.

The item isn’t listed on Sideshow yet, but if you want to visit the preview page go here. Or, you can watch the promo video now (after the jump):

Read more…

A new rumor has begun circulating that Michael Green (Heroes co-executive producer and co-writer of the upcoming The Green Lantern) is writing the screenplay to the Silver Surfer movie.

The origin of this rumor seems to have stemmed from an article on Reelz Channel. The article in question, titled ‘Silver Surfer is NOT Dead‘, quotes J. Michael Straczynski’s clarification earlier this week that his now obsolete script has nothing to do with the other Silver Surfer script under development at Fox, leading Reelz to report:

The other script that Straczynski mentions is likely the one that Michael Green, co-executive producer of Heroes and the co-writer of Green Lantern, has been working on for Fox. Green’s script will likely reboot the franchise, in light of the lackluster performance of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

To clarify, Michael Green has been hired by Fox to write the reboot screenplay for the new Fantastic Four movie. There has been no information to suggest he is also working on the Silver Surfer movie.

Whilst the Reelz article does, perhaps inadvertantly, suggest Green is likely working on the Silver Surfer film, the fact is the name of the scribe – if indeed there is one at this time – remains unknown. It should be remembered that active development of a screenplay includes a whole lot of processes in addition to the actual writing. It is entirely possible that at this early stage Fox have yet to select a script or a screenwriter yet.

When they do, I’ll post it here.

Numerous news and blogs continue to report the false rumor that the Silver Surfer movie is dead. Some aren’t reporting that it’s dead, but are reporting that the film is in doubt. All of these reports are false.

The core rumor appears to have started with IGN who took some comments made by J. Michael Straczynski in an interview with Collider out of context.

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 and, at the very least, that all comments associating him to confirmation that the film isn’t proceeding are wrong. Hopefully now this rumor can end.