Adam McKay has a full plate these days, but there is one Marvel hero he would love to get his hands on and bring to the big screen, and that happens to the Silver Surfer.
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The Anchorman director appeared on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast to talk about a variety of topics, and that includes which Marvel hero he would love direct in a feature film. While the cosmic hero Nova is also close to his heart, for McKay it starts and stops with Silver Surfer.
“When I was in the fourth or 5th grade I got into Nova of all people, and I think they’re kicking around a Nova idea now too,” McKay said. “But Silver Surfer man, that’s the one I want to do. I would do anything to do Silver Surfer, because visually that would be just be…You could do what the Wachowskis did with Speed Racer, with the Silver Surfer.”
While the spectacle aspect is built into the character (he’s a silver cosmic powerhouse that rides around on a surfboard after all), McKay also knows the character has the emotional core to build a story around.
“At the same time, there’s a great emotional story in there man,” McKay said. “Where a guy has to make the choice to save his planet…you know Norrin Rad has to save his planet…that, that would be the one. But I think Fox has the rights to that one…”
So far the character has only been attempted once in a film, which happened to be Fox’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The actual implementation of the Surfer was positively received when that film hit theaters, but it was everything around the Surfer that many criticized, including how the studio handled his world eating master Galactus. Surfer is Galactus’ herald, but when the mighty world eater is nothing more than a giant starry cloud, it doesn’t have the impact it should have had.
You also lost major points when Doctor Doom starts riding the surfboard… so yeah, that happened.
Silver Surfer is part of Fox’s roster of Fantastic Four characters, and overall that franchise has struggled to gain a foothold. What gives many hope is that Surfer and the rest of the roster will soon be back in Marvel Studios’ hands, and so we could very well get a Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer that delivers in the same way so many other Marvel heroes have.
If that’s the case, we know McKay wants the first crack at making it happen.
