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…

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.

A rumor has begun circulating that the Silver Surfer movie is now dead. The rumor seems to have started with IGN who, after reading comments made by J. Michael Straczynski in an interview with Collider, have reported the following via an article titled ‘Silver Surfer Dead‘:

Don’t expect to see a Silver Surfer movie for a while, according to Ninja Assassin scribe J. Michael Straczynski, who was tasked with co-writing the flick.

At no stage in his interview with Collider did Straczynski say or allude that the Silver Surfer film was dead, or that it would be delayed. He merely confirmed that his original script, which told a story that unfolds after the events of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, was no longer applicable.

Unfortunately a number of other blogs/news sites are taking IGN’s article on board and posting that the Silver Surfer movie isn’t going to happen. All of these reports stem back to the original Collider interview which has simply been taken out of context.

The fact remains that whilst Fox are keeping a secretive lid on things, nothing Straczynski has said to Collider has changed a thing. A movie based on the Silver Surfer remains in active development.

Scene from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Verifying my speculation in this article, during a recent interview with Collider Babylon 5 guru J. Michael Straczynski has confirmed that his original script for the Silver Surfer movie will no longer be suitable for the upcoming film.

Straczynski wrote a script for a Silver Surfer movie that was slated to be a sequel to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The script was said to be pretty good, taking off immediately from the end of Fantastic Four 2 and picking up the back story of why Silver Surfer was working for Galactus. The story was to follow the Silver Surfer as he raced to his homeworld in fear that his betrayal of Galactus would lead the planet eater back there to destroy it.  Sounds cool, but that’s not the story we’re going to get.

From Collider:

Q: Is your Silver Surfer draft dead?

JMS: What happened was when FF2 didn’t do as well as they hoped it would do, it caused them to call into question a Silver Surfer movie. The script that I wrote picked up right where FF2 left off. So if they do a Silver Surfer film down the road, it’ll have to be its own separate things.

Q: Fans thought the tone wasn’t right. Was yours geared at children?

JMS: It was definitely adult fare. I wanted to tell the origin of the Surfer and get into that whole thing.

From the tone of Straczynski’s reply it would seem he’s also completely unaware of what’s happening with the Silver Surfer film. It’s probably fair to say that Fox don’t intend for him to be involved given that the script for the film is, apparently, in active development as we speak. If true that, to my mind, is potentially bad news – although I say that without any clue as to who is actually working on the script. Fox are deathly quiet on dropping any screenwriter names, so what exactly ‘active development’ means right now is anybody’s guess.

For now, we just have to sit tight and be happy that it is in active development.