Ewan McGregor recently received widespread acclaim for his villainous performance as Roman Sionis in the DCEU’s Birds of Prey, which marked the actor’s first foray into the world of comic book movies. However, it turns out that he could have made his debut in the genre over two decades previously in a Marvel adaptation, when Fox were toying with the idea of making a Silver Surfer pic.
Superhero movies weren’t exactly big business in the 1990s, and wouldn’t experience a resurgence in popularity until X-Men and Spider-Man exploded into theaters at the turn of the millennium, but storyboard artist Gabriel Hardman recently revealed that he did some concept work on the proposed Silver Surfer, as well as dropping some details on the cast and crew.
According to Hardman, Geoffrey Wright was set to be the man behind the camera, which would have made for a strange transition given that the Australian filmmaker was best known for writing and directing Russell Crowe’s breakout role in 1992’s controversial Romper Stomper, with veteran British actor Steven Berkoff wanted for Galactus.
Due to the technological limitations of the time and budget concerns, the title character was set to spend the majority of the running time in human form, which would hardly be an ideal scenario for someone like the Silver Surfer, and you can check out Hardman’s storyboards below.
When the idea was being tossed around in 1997, McGregor was fresh off his breakout role in Trainspotting that brought him to Hollywood’s attention, and being cast as the lead in a big budget comic book movie could have had the potential to make or break his career at the time. It may not have happened then, but a Silver Surfer movie could still be on the cards one day, with Marvel Studios now back in control of the rights.
