Posts with tag silver surfer
Posted Aug 29th 2008 1:03PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Universal, Movie Marketing
There is no denying that 'origin tales' are all the rage, and it's not just for superheroes anymore. In an
interview with MTV Movie Blog, director
Alex Proyas gave a few updates about what he has planned for
Dracula Year Zero, and the word of the day is 'realism'. Proyas told MTV, the film will be, "sort of the origin tale that mixes [the historical] Prince Vlad of Transylvania with sort of [fictionalized] Bram Stoker [take]" -- I guess if it helps, just think of it as '
Portrait of a Bloodsucker as a Young Man'
Proyas (like so many before him) is planning to mess with the mythology of the big, bad, Transylvanian. But, don't worry, there are still plenty of fangs to go around, Proyas tells MTV, "Oh, you've got to have teeth, I mean, the teeth are really important. I think Frank Langella in the 'Dracula' movie that was made in the 70s, I think he didn't want to have teeth in the movie. But, no, I like the teeth. I want to see girls with a lot of teeth." -- and maybe most importantly to fans, "...lots and lots of blood!"
Matt Sazama and
Burk Sharpless were hired to write the script for Universal, who are probably expecting this project to dovetail nicely with their other classic 'monster' flicks (
The Wolfman and
The Mummy). But is a realistic Dracula really the way to go? If you do a little digging on the life of Vlad the Impaler, it's not exactly the romantic tale that Coppola provided us with back in 1992. So keep your fingers crossed that Sazama and Sharpless have a copy of
The Legend of Dracula lying around, and hopefully they have something like
this in mind for
Year Zero.
Dracula Year Zero is expected to arrive in theaters in 2009.
Posted Aug 28th 2008 6:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
You have to feel bad for the Silver Surfer. Everyone else is getting their own spin-off and franchise, and he can't even get the green-light. J. Michael Straczynski already said that
his script was dead, but rumors continued to swirl that
Alex Proyas was attached to direct.
But as reported by
Slashfilm, Proyas shot that down at ComicCon. He didn't even know where the rumor originated. And while he's very fond of the character, he told
MTV this week that he will never even
consider directing a Silver Surfer movie. Why? "Because it's a Fox picture. And I'm determined never to work with them ever again because of my experience on
I,Robot." Nor is he happy with the way the character was handled in
Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer. "It's like the origin of Silver Surfer was in that movie, and I'm going, 'This is such a f–king great story, why throw it away? I think they messed it up ... Silver Surfer would have been something I would have loved to have done. He's one of the last cool ones left, really."
Who knows -- maybe Fox will relinquish the rights to the
Fantastic Four characters (it's not like they're using them), and Proyas will not only get to direct a comic book movie, but fans will get a
Silver Surfer movie from someone who really gets the character. But with all the studios jealously guarding their franchises, we'll probably see a
Fantastic Four reboot before we see the Silver Surfer in the hands of someone that cares.
Posted Jun 20th 2008 1:31PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Scripts, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
For the Silver Surfer fans dying to see his spin-off movie, this will come as a bitter disappointment. AMC's SciFi Scanner caught up with J. Michael Straczynski and asked him about the status of his Silver Surfer script. Not surprisingly, it is in the dead zone.
"Whether or not it ever gets made, I don't know, because they were kind of disappointed in how Fantastic Four 2 did. And given how this will be a subset of FF2 in terms of the marketing strategy, I think there is hesitation there about putting it forward. The script is pretty good, I like it, but whether or not it goes into production, I have no idea."
Silver Surfer would have taken place minutes after Fantastic Four 2 ended, and his surfboard raced back to his open arms. "You find out why Silver Surfer was there and what happened to him. We would have seen Galactus, his home world, what happened and him trying to get back there, because now that he's betrayed Galactus, he's concerned his home world might be in jeopardy."
Continue reading 'Silver Surfer' Not Getting the Greenlight?
Posted Feb 20th 2008 6:02PM by Kim Voynar
Filed under: Fandom, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Movie Marketing
Get ready to break out your copies of
The Zombie Survival Guide, and be sure to stock up on bottled water and "lobos" (you know, those weapons with which one decapitates the living dead in hand-to-hand combat) -- Max Brooks's
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is being made into a film, with
J. Michael Straczynski (who's also scribing
Silver Surfer) adapting the book for the big screen. The film is being produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and Paramount is distributing.This is probably old news to some of you, but it's exciting news to me, since I just last night finished reading
World War Z.
I was absolutely immersed in this book and found it hard to put down. I've had deliciously scary zombie nightmares regularly while reading it, and have spent waayyyyyy more time than is probably healthy in discussions with my husband about the practical issues surrounding surviving a plague of the undead, comparing
World War Z to Stephen King's plague book,
The Stand, and pondering whether such a thing as an undead plague could actually scientifically happen (see, this kind of freakish obsessiveness is why I don't read or watch a lot of horror ...).
Continue reading Bring Out Your Dead! World War Z is Coming!
Posted Oct 26th 2007 12:32PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
We could really use a new adaptation of Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein. It could be a faithful film, which would have certain relevance in a time when genetic research and other culturally debated scientific progresses, medical or not, continue to mark us as a God-aspirant species. Or it could be an updated or altered adaptation, to make the relevance more obvious. I think
James Whale's films about the doctor and the monster are terrific, and we already have the greatest variation -- Mel Brooks'
Young Frankenstein -- but I'd personally like to see a new take on the original novel. Well,
according to JoBlo, the guy who would most like to take the reigns on that idea is
Guillermo Del Toro. During a visit to the set of
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,
JoBlo's Jason Adams quoted Del Toro as saying he "would kill to make" a faithful "Miltonian tragedy" version.
Apparently when
Kenneth Branagh tried to do this 13 years ago with his
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there was an unshot version of the script by
Frank Darabont. Del Toro claims that draft was, according to Adams, "pretty much perfect." I admit I never bothered with Branagh's film. I'd rather watch "Johnny 5" play the monster than
Robert DeNiro (or at least watch the robot read the book, as he does in
Short Circuit 2). So, I can't directly say what didn't work about the adaptation. All I know is that it seems to have been pretty much disregarded by everyone. That said, I'm also not the biggest Del Toro enthusiast in the world. I'm not going to exclaim that he needs to make this and that he would deliver the best
Frankenstein ever. I would, however, love to see him make the attempt.
Continue reading Guillermo del Toro Wants to do Frankenstein
Posted Jul 25th 2007 12:31PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Although producer Avi Arad is currently making the rounds promoting his newest film, Bratz: The Movie, all anyone wants is more information on the 10+ comic-related films he has in the pipeline. Some of those, of course, include those two X-Men spin-off flicks (Wolverine and Magneto), as well as Captain America, Thor, The Punisher 2, Ant-Man, Iron Fist and probably the most anticipated of them all, The Avengers. I've tried repeatedly over the past month to get word from Zak Penn on whether he's started The Avengers script, but unfortunately he's told me that he can't say anything. Bummer. But that's not stopping Arad from opening his mouth -- just the other day, he confirmed that both Samuel L. Jackson and Hilary Swank will have cameos in Iron Man, and now he's telling the Australian press that he plans to shoot a majority of those comic-related films down under.
While he wouldn't reveal which films were going to shoot in Australia, he did say that he's attempting to hire an Australian director for one of them. Though he wouldn't name that director or the film, folks have been tossing the name Alex Proyas around in relation to the upcoming Silver Surfer solo effort. Most recently, Proyas directed the Will Smith flick I, Robot, as well as the smaller budgeted Aussie pic Garage Days. Arad, who attempted to get at least one Bratz reference in by saying "Bratz is X-Men for girls," is real keen on Australia because, according to him, "it's such a fun place with great technical talent and some amazing special effects houses." Sounds wonderful, except I'm still stuck on the "Bratz is like X-Men for girls" line. Is he serious about that? Or should it have read, "Bratz is like X-Men for girls ... on drugs?"
Posted Jul 4th 2007 5:01PM by Kim Voynar
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Paramount, Box Office, Family Films, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Games and Game Movies
Over on Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke has a piece up about the
anticipated weekend box office for
Transformers that pretty much sums up why Hollywood's summer blockbusters (with some exceptions scattered here and there) tend to be so darn bad: because no matter how bad they are, and no matter how many critics write scathing reviews warning people how bad they are, audiences still flock to see them.
Transformers is a case in point: Finke notes that pretty much everyone on the planet expects the film to gross $125 million this weekend -- now stop a moment and ponder how many butts you have to put in seats to gross $125 million -- except for Paramount, which, according to Finke has back-pedaled to predicting a mere $100-125 million take.
That's a whole lot of moolah for a film about robots that disguise themselves as cars. To be fair, in spite of the fact that
Cinematical's James Rocchi and
Scott Weinberg thought the film was utterly wretched, it is sitting relatively pretty with a
60% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (a surprising 69% from the Cream of the Crop), which isn't going to hurt the film's box office any, especially for those folks who are inclined to actually take a look at what critics are saying about a film before plunking down their cash for a $10 movie ticket and some snacks.
Continue reading Summer Blockbusters: They May Be Bad, but We Still Love Them
Posted Jun 13th 2007 3:32PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
According to the LA Times today, 20th Century Fox is already
prepping a solo spin-off for the Silver Surfer. The Marvel character features in
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, opening this weekend, and Fox is apparently hoping that pic performs well enough to give the Surfer his own movie, because the studio has hired comic book writer/screenwriter
J. Michael Straczynski to pen the thing. Straczynski has written for a number of Marvel titles, including the new series
Silver Surfer: Requiem, he created the sci-fi series
Babylon 5 and he recently delivered scripts for
The Changeling, to be directed by Clint Eastwood, and the zombie adaptation
World War Z. The LA Times article claims the Silver Surfer movie would be darker in tone than the new
Fantastic Four sequel, possibly in response to fan criticisms of the sequel's PG rating. I've never actually read the Silver Surfer comics, so I'm not sure how dark is appropriate for the character, but I'll always take a more grown-up comic adaptation than something geared toward young children.
More exciting for me is the news, also mentioned in the LA Times piece, that
Thor may soon have a director. Unlike the Surfer comics,
The Mighty Thor was a title I followed for years, and so far the closest thing I've had to seeing the hero/god on the big screen is his 'cameo' in
Adventures in Babysitting (and I doubt he'll be in
the remake). Supposedly
Layer Cake director
Matthew Vaughn is in negotiations to helm the comic adaptation, which was
greenlit last summer and which has a script by
Mark Protosevich (
Poseidon). I'm not a huge fan of Vaughn's directorial style and I was happy when he dropped out of
X-Men: The Last Stand (though now I think he'd have done better), but I'm willing to give him a chance with Thor. I think his style may actually be appropriate for the god of thunder. Besides, we've so far only seen one film from him; his next,
Stardust, arrives in August.
[via
JoBlo and
Moviehole]
Posted May 29th 2007 4:33PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek
It seems I no longer need to worry -- or rant -- about the American government selling itself out for ad space. The Silver Surfer quarters that I
complained about on Friday were not
actually made with any cooperation from the U.S. Mint*. In fact, a press release from the Mint states the coins are "in no way approved, authorized, endorsed or sponsored by the United States Mint, nor is [the movie promotion] associated or affiliated with the United States Mint."
According to a spokesperson from 20th Century Fox, neither the studio nor the Franklin Mint meant to imply the U.S. Mint was involved, and certainly neither meant to break the law. But the marketing stunt may in fact be in violation, because it is illegal to turn federal money into an advertisement. This appears to be exactly what Fox and Franklin have done, since the 40,000 Silver Surfer coins are modified versions of actual U.S. quarters originally minted and circulated by the government in 2005.
It is hard to understand exactly how Fox and Franklin think the promotion, which advertises the website for the movie
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, did not imply the coins are real, legal tender. Though the Franklin Mint often produces collectible and commemorative coins, it does not usually distribute them for free by dumping them into circulation. The Silver Surfer quarters were sent into the currency stream last week and all are expected to be in circulation by the end of the Memorial Day weekend. If neither Fox nor Franklin means for them to be accepted as real money, then how are they to be distributed? So far neither company has been issued a fine or other legal ramification, but we'll see if something more happens with the story once the business week begins.
*Thanks to commenter Alex C. for tipping me off about the follow-up story. Posted May 25th 2007 6:32PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, 20th Century Fox, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
I'm fine with the government providing financial assistance to the movie industry (via subsidies and such), but when it is directly involved with the marketing of a film, I think that's a bit too much.
The U.S. Mint has gotten together with * the Franklin Mint and 20th Century Fox to
create a limited edition version of the U.S. quarter that features an image of the Silver Surfer on the tails side. These coins, which have already been released into circulation, also include the address for the
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer website. There are only a total of 40,000 out there, so if you manage to find one, you might not want to go and use it in a vending machine; you should probably hold on to it. Besides the fact that it's a collectible (people are already selling them on eBay), there's also a contest open only to people who find one of the coins -- with the prize being a trip to the London premiere of
FF:ROTSS.
Recently another government agency, the U.S. Postal Service, participated in movie marketing by
placing 400 R2D2 mailboxes on sidewalks throughout the country. Of course, this was to celebrate the anniversary of a movie (also released by Fox) that has become something of a national treasure. The Silver Surfer coins are less forgivable because they advertise a new release that may not even be a big success. For that reason, the stunt seems to imply that our government agencies are for sale to advertising agencies. What, now, would stop the Federal Reserve from replacing George Washington with
Spider-Man on limited edition one-dollar bills? How about we offer up the sides of government buildings and vehicles (including military vehicles, too) for logos and billboards? And why not have the President tell us to drink Coca-Cola at the end of his State of the Union speech?
*For a follow-up on this story, which points out that the U.S. Mint was not involved, check out the following post:
Silver Surfer Quarters Are Not Legal CurrencyPosted May 1st 2007 12:01PM by Matt Bradshaw
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Trailer Trash, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
There's a brand
new trailer in town for
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and I must say it's pretty sweet. Don't be fooled by the fact that this one opens just like the teaser trailer that's been around for the last few months, with the Silver Surfer streaking toward Earth like a meteor; this baby's got a whole bunch of new stuff. There's the Fantasticar for starters, the FF's airborne transport, and I'm happy to report it looks nothing like the flying bathtub used in the first few issues of the comic. Not only do we get to see all four of our heroes displaying their powers, but The Thing and The Human Torch actually exchange abilities, much to the Torch's chagrin. We also see the Torch making eyes at a female military officer, who may be the Frankie Raye character I blogged about
last October. There's lots more surfing with the alien this time too, and a better look at the global destruction the Silver Surfer causes. Check it out; you know you want to. The rest of us will wait.
I can't say I've ever been this jazzed up for a sequel to a film I didn't like. For my money, the last
Fantastic Four flick had the characters spending too much time trying to cure themselves and not enough time being superheroes, but at least they
got the premise and the characters right, even if the story was weak. This leaves the sequel in a strong position to redeem the franchise. I was a big fan of the
Fantastic Four comic book back in the 80s, and there's still enough comic-book geek in me to hope we've got a genuine blockbuster here.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hits U.S. theaters on June 15.
Posted Apr 25th 2007 1:31PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Since it did not stand up to some of the buzz surrounding
the other superhero flick this summer, the sequel to
Fantastic Four has had a relatively low profile. There have already been a
few sets of posters so far, and now Marvel.com is hosting
10 new international posters for
Fantastic Four 2: Rise of The Silver Surfer. The one-sheets have been pretty consistent, and these latest posters are no different. Giving us a look at all 4 heroes decked out in their "spandexed" best. We also get another look at the
Surfer himself, and now since we know
what he is going to sound like too, a pretty clear picture is starting to emerge for fans.
Director
Tim Story has already
promised fans a definite improvement from the last film -- namely more action. Opinions have
varied so far on whether a sequel can deliver, although considering the reaction the trailer
received back in December, expectations seem pretty low to begin with. It's not like this latest round of posters is going to convince anyone to see the film who wasn't planning on it already. Although I'm sure a 30-foot
Jessica Alba in a skin-tight cat suit will draw at least a few glances. Considering no one was all that excited about this sequel in the first place, any
talk of a third film is going to have to wait until opening weekend.
Posted Apr 19th 2007 6:01PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
A few excited websites got the news half-right a couple days back: Yes, it's true that
the man who played Morpheus will provide a voice in Fox's
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. But no, that voice will not belong to "Galactus, Eater of Planets." Mr. Fishburne will voice the title character himself. Silver Surfer: Body by
Doug Jones, Powers by Weta Digital, Voice by Laurence Fishburne.
You'd think that with a voice like his, Mr. Fishburne would be a veteran when it comes to voice-over work, but as far as I can tell, his only experience in this arena lies as the narrator in
TMNT and with some material for the
Matrix video
games. (How has he not been given a job by Pixar or DreamWorks Animation yet? The guy's a natural!) Needless to say, the addition of Laurence Fishburne to any project raises both the Geek Quotient and the Bad-Ass Factor -- exponentially.
But the important question (and by "important" I mean "really nerdy) is this:
Does Laurence Fishburne possess the appropriate pipes to play the platinum powerhouse? I ask the old-school Marvel fans: As you read the Silver Surfer character, does his voice sound anything like Larry Fishburne's? I don't know much about the character, but I always figured he'd sound something like C-3P0.
Posted Apr 15th 2007 2:01PM by Ryan Stewart
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
.jpg)
Eight weeks before Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hits theaters, a number of Youtube videos have popped up featuring a giggly fat man in silver body paint and bald cap who walks around what looks like Venice interacting with the locals and declaring himself to be the real Silver Surfer, as opposed to the toned figure on the billboards. "I wanted to play myself and they said 'no.' I wanted to play Mr. Fantastic and they said 'no.' Racism. It's because of my skin color." I'll say this for Fox's viral marketing department -- at least these clips are mildly amusing. The best one features the chubby Surfer actually attempting to surf. "It's a beautiful morning," he says, chatting up a guy next to him who is also about to go out. "Kind of reminds me of the great deepness of space, you know? Kind of goes on forever." He then takes a running start at the water and freaks out because the water is too cold.
The other three videos aren't quite as good as the surfing one, and the one where he offers "surfing lessons from the Silver Surfer" on the street corner cuts way too fast for us to discern anything about what's going on. Fox should hire a cameraman who knows the principles of comedy a little better. Nevertheless, like I said, it's pretty funny if you're looking for something to watch on a rainy day, as it actually is today. I'll close by reiterating the point of the whole thing -- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer opens in theaters on June 15.
Posted Mar 17th 2007 2:02PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images
Since I don't speak Russian, there is not much I can tell you about the origin of the character posters for Fantastic Four: The Rise of The Silver Surfer that have just popped up on a Russian site and are now making their way around to our time zone. КиноПоиск.ru has the posters of the Four alongside some pictures of the Silver Surfer. They kind of struck me as "glamor shots" -- well, as glamorous as you can make a character called The Thing. So, unless you are a dedicated collector of all things Fantastic, I doubt they'll thrill you all that much. It's not like I am the first to notice the Four's lackluster marketing tactics -- Erik had some news on the sequel a few weeks ago about how Fox wasn't exactly rolling out the red carpet for the film.
The first poster to make its way to the web (The Silver Surfer in all his glory with the word RISE) was definitely better than the head shots they have currently settled on. We have had a look at one trailer already and as the release date of June 15th gets closer, I would presume that we will get to see at least one more trailer for the film, and I hope some more exciting poster art. [Ed. -- On a semi-related note, Cinematical will have more interesting Jessica Alba-related stuff to bring you, probably by the end of next week, so keep an eye out for that.]
Next Page >
