Babylon 5's JMS to pen 'Silver Surfer' spinoff (with exclusive NEW info)

Well, I have an exclusive on part of this, but not the whole thing. First from AICN,

20th Century Fox is soooooo certain FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER will be a hit that that plans for a SILVER SURFER spin-off movie are already afoot.

An article in yesterday's LA Times says this:

Feeling bullish on the eve of the release of its "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," Fox has already put a feature spinoff into development that will star the enigmatic Surfer, with J. Michael Straczynski currently crafting the screenplay.

If there is any truth to this at all, chances are excellent that someone has asked about it in the moderated Babylon 5 newsgroup that Joe haunts, so I dipped in there just a moment ago and found as good confirmation as you are likely to get anyplace until the official announcement comes out. This is the exclusive part: nobody else has this.

> Anything more you can tell us?

Not as such...I don't really know how much I should or shouldn't say
on this because I've been waiting for the official studio announcement and this kind of precedes that...they haven't told me *not* to comment on it, but they haven't told me that I could, either...so with luck I can say more in a few days.

There's another little surprise in the imdb listing, btw....

jms

That's it, he's doing it. If it wasn't happening, Joe would have said so outright, he's real good about being straight with people. As for the hint about the credits, Straczynski confirmed that he's writing the screenplay for They Marched Into Sunlight based on an outline by Paul Greengrass, who is also directing.

Straczynski has been writing comics since the 80's, including work on Teen Titans, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Babylon 5 for DC. For Marvel, it's been The Amazing Spiderman, Supreme Power, Fantastic Four, Dream Police, Silver Surfer: Requiem, and more.

So that's cool, everyone has the first bit, but I have the virtual confirmation. Who said the USENET was dead?

Topics: Film, J. Michael Straczynski, Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four