If you’ve ever wonder where film directors get their start, take a look at USC School of Cinema-Television’s ‘Silver Surfer’ for Sci-Friday #178. Watch the movie, and then we’ll discuss the interesting backstory as well as what happened next:
According to Wikipedia, ‘In 1989, Erik Fleming, then a film student from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and Robert Letterman approached Marvel Studios and Constantin Film’s producer Bernd Eichinger to ask permission to make a short film featuring the Silver Surfer as a proof of concept for the use of CGI in creating a realistic silver-colored human figure.’
On a shoestring budget (literally) – these film school grads made a realistic CGI film for $3,000. CBR reports: “We went and got these two kids who worked for the Creature Shop [special effects house]. Once they had digitized their Surfer, they realized they needed access to a more powerful computer than they had to build the skeletons the animation would be based around. USC, of course, had just such a computer. And it was one which was mostly used to make title credits for IMAX films. And so, Steve Robiner, a student who worked with the computer in question, was recruited. The guys also got access to the software that would eventually be used to create the dinosaurs in ‘Jurassic Park’ and eventually produced a number of color pictures of the Silver Surfer as he would appear in their movie.”
Overnight, the film created a tremendous amount of buzz but it was all for naught. “We flew to New York and showed it to Marvel, and they totally flipped out. We met with Stan Lee here in LA and showed it to him in this private theater, which was really cool, since he was our hero, and he flipped. … Now, every studio is hounding Marvel Comics for the rights to the movie. … We had made Constantin a $5 million commercial for their property,” Fleming said. “Overnight, Oliver Stone is calling, asking to direct it … And nine years later, the Silver Surfer is in limbo.”
Letterman directed a couple movies, probably most notable was Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. The others have a few credits to their name but nothing major. Such is the story of many creative professionals in Hollywood – they make their mark, and then they fade into the industry background. Bonus material – they shot a ‘making of’ documentary that you can watch here.
Are you interested in going to USC for cinematic arts? Check out the college website page here. I hope you enjoyed this moment of scifi and filmmaking nerdery! Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend! 🙂
