We’ll know by the time the grosses for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer are announced this weekend whether or not The Silver Surfer is going to get his own spin-off movie, but the folks at Fox are feeling very confident at the moment; according to the LA Times they’ve hired J Michael Straczynski to write a film for the surfer of the spaceways.
You may remember that guy as the fellow behind Babylon 5, the TV show that the truly hardcore nerds keep recommending to me (I get the impression it’s like Star Trek: The Next Generation but without the level of acting. Find your own level of snark in that comment). He’s also been a comic book writer for the last few years and will forever be known for a couple of the worst story arcs in the history of Amazing Spider-Man, including one where Peter Parker’s powers were revealed to be part of some mystical animal totem bullshit and one where it was revealed that Norman Osborne once raped Gwen Stacy and that she had twins from the encounter and they grew up super fast and fought Spider-Man. Jesus I hate comic books sometimes.
The upside to Straczynski writing The Silver Surfer is that he’s versed in scifi and he’s in tight with Marvel. The bad side is that he’ll reveal that Galactus raped Terrax.
The LA Times also mentions that Thor is in development with Mark Protosevich writing (which I think we’ve heard before) and Matthew Vaughn possibly directing. That last bit feels like news to me, but who can keep track of who is attached to what superhero movie that may never happen.