The SILVER SURFER Rock Opera Film Almost Made in the '80s With Olivia Newton-John and a Score by Paul McCartney — GeekTyrant
This nearly-made movie would've mashed up the philosophical space opera energy of 2001: A Space Odyssey with a soundtrack driven by a rock 'n' roll legend.
Executive producer Lee Kramer had a vision, and it was wild. He once explained:
'We're going to make an epic picture on the scope of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the kind of soundtrack that that film had, only using contemporary rock 'n' roll. It's even conceivable that the Surfer might have a chant or a fanfare made up of one thousand electric guitars.'
One. Thousand. Electric guitars. And if that wasn't ambitious enough, the soundtrack was supposed to be written by Paul McCartney. According to reports, the Beatles icon was approached, and interested, in scoring this cosmic jam session. It's the kind of idea that could only come out of the high-concept, high-risk creativity of the 1980s.
The film would have focused solely on the Surfer, with Marvel having lost the rights to the Fantastic Four at the time. Kramer turned to Stan Lee and asked for a standalone story.
Lee, teaming with Jack Kirby, crafted a new narrative that reimagined the Surfer's arrival on Earth and his defiance of Galactus, no Fantastic Four required. This version leaned harder into the existential elements of the character's arc and introduced an original character named Ardina, a female counterpart to the Surfer created by Galactus to lure his herald back.
Why a female Silver Surfer? Because Kramer wanted a role for his girlfriend at the time… none other than Olivia Newton-John. This movie would've paired the shiny, brooding bodybuilder-turned-Surfer Frank Zane with Newton-John's luminous, rebellious space goddess.
In this retelling, Ardina falls in love with the Surfer and ultimately sacrifices herself, forcing the Surfer to return to Galactus in order to save Earth. Shakespeare in space with killer lighting and synth.
Concept art from the film, which you can see above, shows the chrome-plated Surfer floating alone in the void, staring into the reflective surface of his board.
But, like many overly ambitious passion projects, it fell apart. Financing collapsed, and this gloriously over-the-top space rock opera was scrapped
Still, if you're a fan of the Surfer or just weird, almost-happened Hollywood tales, it's hard not to sit back and imagine what could've been: a Silver Surfer movie scored by Paul McCartney, starring Olivia Newton-John, with a thousand electric guitars echoing through the cosmos.
Honestly? Still sounds better than most of the other Fantastic Four films that have been made.
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