Director James Gunn admits that he almost made a Silver Surfer movie.
Long before Guardians of the Galaxy brought the MCU into the realms of the cosmic, it looks as though director James Gunn was far more interested in the Silver Surfer. Clearly a fan of the comic books, he revealed that his take on the classic Marvel character was ready to tackle Galactus – even without the help of the Fantastic Four.
But alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Appearing on Facebook, the Marvel writer/director revealed that his first writing gig in L.A. was writing a treatment for his very own ‘Silver Surfer’ movie.
“When I first moved to LA in 1999, one of the first people I met on a meeting was an exec at Fox,” he said. “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,” he added, “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, it turns out that neither film ever saw the light of day… but what would have happened had James Gunn stuck around to see his Silver Surfer onto the big screen?
“I sometimes wonder what it would have been like had I truly jumped into the cosmic Marvel pool 16 years ago,” he said.
And It would have been a lot better than the recent Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Unfortunately, Marvel still don’t own the rights to the Silver Surfer… and so an appearance within the MCU – specifically Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – is rather unlikely. So for the time being, we’ll just have to imagine how awesome it could have been.
Would you have watched Gunn’s Silver Surfer movie? Would it have been better than Fox’s take on the character? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
