Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Reports are spreading across the web that Doug Jones, who is set to play the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer will be wearing a chrome colored body-suit and some sort of articulated head/mask for his portrayal of the Silver Surfer.

Now the first thing to remember is that there has been no confirmation of this yet, it's essentially just an anonymous rumor (although one that people seem to think is credible). The second thing to keep in mind is that just because Jones will be wearing a silver suit, doesn't remove the possibility of some sort of post-production CGI effects being added to make the whole thing more convincing.

Reaction to the news has been mixed at best. Many people had just assumed it was a foregone conclusion that some form of motion capture CGI would be used. The Silver Surfer is a character better suited to such CGI than most.

I am a little concerned to hear this, because I can't help but think about how they chose to do The Thing in the first Fantastic Four movie (and the second too). I was expecting him to be some sort of CGI creation, but instead they went for a man in a suit.

Is this a budgetary thing or a stylistic decision by Tim Story? I'm not sure, but I didn't find the Thing costume entirely convincing last time round (he looked too small and too soft) so I'm really hoping there will be some post production on the Silver Surfer.

If they go for a non-CGI Silver Surfer, I can't even begin to imagine how they would handle Galactus…