Thursday, July 06, 2006

The Silver Surfer to be played by computers


From Iwatchstuff, "According to Moviehole, not only are the rumors about Vin Diesel playing the Silver Surfer in the second Fantastic Four movie untrue, but the Surfer won't even be played by a human, with director Tim Story opting for an all CGI design.

The film's director, Tim Story, told me this morning that although The Silver Surfer is indeed in the movie, it won't be Vin Diesel playing him.

"No truth to it", Story said, when asked about the Diesel rumours. "The Surfer will be a new CGI design being developed especially for the movie. It's going to be incredible."

The CGI system being developed to make a man appear to be made of silver is so sophisticated, it's being codenamed, "The same crap they did for T-1000 in Terminator 2." At least by me.

As a condolence to Vin, I'd like to point out that it's probably only going to help your career to not to play a silver alien that rides on a surfboard. Yes, it worked for Brando, but he's Brando."

3 comments:

Octopunk said...

Well duh. After T2, how could they not? Does the Surfer show up in that weird FF pilot? You know, the one where Ben Grimm is a guy in a big foam costume? That's really the only time they could get away with silver makeup: when nobody was watching.

And Vin Diesel? Now that's just ridiculous. I like Vin just fine, but as the Silver Surfer? Who thinks of this stuff? (The real question is, with Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, why am I asking?)

50PageMcGee said...

octopunk isn't much of a silver surfer fan. i happen to be and as such, it kind of bugs me to see a character i like get swallowed up by a series that, substance-wise, isn't going anywhere.

because of various trademark laws, characters in marvel films that get sold to one studio can't be used in another. so for instance, ben urich won't ever show up in a spidey flick because the daredevil people already used him. something that can be worked around, obviously.

but still, it makes me sad to think that what could have been a quality character in the hands of a more skilled director, like chris nolan or brian singer, is getting mixed in with the rest of the peanuts in the giant pile of peanut-poop that is anything made by guys like tim storey who wouldn't know (a)comic books or (b)a cinematic idea of maturity and quality if it bit them on the nuts.

Octopunk said...

Yeah, I don't get the appeal of Silver Surfer. Let me quote myself from an earlier post about Ghost Rider: "I've always felt this idea sprang from the same aspect of the Marvel muse that brought us Silver Surfer, as in 'Hey it's the 60's! What are the kids into? Surfing? Great.' Then, in the 70's, it was 'choppers.' Yawn."

Silver aliens I can see, but it's never made sense to me that a far-off alien race or a galaxy-hopping world eater would emulate a Hawaiian leisure sport. And the more I think about it and Marvel's whole "cosmic" vibe, the more I'm convinced it's all a bunch of hippie crap.

Malevolent

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