Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has taken to Facebook to reveal that back in the late 1990s he spent time working on another of Marvel’s cosmic properties, producing a treatment for a Silver Surfer movie for 20th Century Fox.
“Little known fact: When I first moved to LA in 1999, one of the first people I met on a meeting was an exec at Fox. He told me they wanted to make a Silver Surfer movie, and I might be right for that, so I wrote an extensive treatment. It was a huge story, cosmic as hell, and featured the Silver Surfer turning on Galactus (but no Fantastic Four – this was before the first FF film). At the same time, I was approached by director Jay Roach and his producer Shauna Robertson about writing a live-action Spy Vs. Spy film. That film seemed more likely to get made, and I loved Jay and Shauna, so I took that gig instead. It was my first studio film job. Of course, in eventuality, neither movie ever got made. But people liked the Spy Vs. Spy script, so I got a lot of work because of it. That said, I sometimes wonder what it would have been like had I truly jumped into the cosmic Marvel pool 16 years ago.”
As it happened, Fox did bring the Silver Surfer to the big screen in 2007’s Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where he was portrayed by Doug Jones. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios made an attempt to reacquire the rights to the Surfer (and Galactus) back in 2012, offering Fox an extension on the rights to Daredevil in return for the two characters. But of course, that didn’t pan out…
Would you have liked to see James Gunn’s take on the Silver Surfer?
https://youtu.be/pnc360pUDRI?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published May 2, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
