Latest news with #spaceopera
Geek Tyrant
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
The SILVER SURFER Rock Opera Film Almost Made in the '80s With Olivia Newton-John and a Score by Paul McCartney — GeekTyrant
There was a moment in the '80s and early '90s when the Silver Surfer almost rode a wave of psychedelic rock straight onto the big screen. 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.
Geek Tyrant
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
A Third REBEL MOON Movie? 'An Act of God' Might Be the Only Way, Says Writer Kurt Johnstad — GeekTyrant
Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon was meant to be a sprawling six-part space opera, a big swing at building a new sci-fi mythology for Netflix. But after two films and a mountain of mixed reactions, mostly bad, the dream seemed to crash and burn. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver didn't land the way it needed to. Sure, it opened strong and briefly topped Netflix's viewership charts, but the drop-off was steep. Engagement plummeted after the premiere, and critical reception has been cold. Rotten Tomatoes has the film sitting at a 16% with a brutal 3.8/10 average score. Critics described it as 'an uninvolving space opera full of flat notes.' And while Part One: A Child of Fire was no critical hit either, there was still a sense of curiosity, but that curiosity seems to have burned out. Despite Netflix sinking an estimated $166 million into the first two chapters, the response has likely given executives second thoughts about funding another big-budget sequel, let alone four more. The silence from Netflix since the release of Scargiver has been telling. Still, screenwriter Kurt Johnstad, who co-wrote both Rebel Moon films with Snyder, says there is a plan. A very detailed one. On a recent episode of the I MINUTEMEN podcast, he shared just how far down the road the team had gone in building out the universe, and how unlikely it is that fans will ever see where that road leads. 'We outlined movies 3, 4, 5, and 6… very detailed outlines, and Zack has literally plotted out the whole world. We know where we can go… we've written… detailed outlines. 'The second movie was to find the princess. And the third movie is to make sure that the princess is where she should be — sitting on the throne and properly ruling… over the Mother World.' It sounds promising, but those first two movie were not good. When asked point-blank about the odds of a third film happening, Johnstad didn't sugarcoat it: 'With some luck and an act of God, we'll get to go back to that world.' Not exactly a confidence booster. For now, Snyder and Johnstad are shifting gears and pivoting away from space rebellions and into a new Netflix project: a gritty LAPD thriller. It's reportedly lower-budget and more grounded, a notable departure from the recent string of high-concept Snyder-verse spectacles (Army of the Dead, Rebel Moon, 300). At this point, Rebel Moon's legacy might be less about the saga we were promised and more about the reality of ambitious worldbuilding in the streaming era… no matter how big your galaxy is, if people aren't watching, the universe collapses fast. So unless divine intervention shows up wielding a checkbook and a greenlight, don't expect to see another Rebel Moon movie.
