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Beatles' Paul McCartney Was Approached To Score SILVER SURFER Movie That Never Was

A year ago, Sean Howe, author of "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story," revealed concept art from a Silver Surfer film that was pitched in 1980 by Hollywood producer Lee Kramer. What you may not know, is that Kramer approached Sir Paul McCartney about scoring it.

nailbiter111 | 12/25/2013
Filed Under: "Silver Surfer" Source: seanhowe.tumblr.com

Last year, to drum up interest for his new book, "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story" Sean Howe posted concept art that was created for a briefly-planned Silver Surfer movie. Which you can view on the right. The proposed movie was conceived by Hollywood film producer, Lee Kramer. This all happened around 1980, and at the time Kramer envisioned it as "an epic picture on the scope of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the kind of soundtrack that that film had, only using contemporary rock and roll." It also would've starred Kramer's then-girlfriend Olivia Newton-John ("Grease"). She would've played the Surfer's girlfriend. While that didn't materialize, Kramer did book Newton-John in his fantasy-musical, 1980's Xanadu.

So, people were quick to post the concept art, but most missed Sean Howe's update that revealed Kramer approaching legendary singer/songwriter, Paul McCartney. Kramer apparently wanted McCartney, founding member of The Beatles, to score his Silver Surfer movie. Howe posted a letter that Kramer received from Steve Shrimpton, Paul McCartney's then-manager.

As you can see in the letter, McCartney wasn't opposed to the idea. Which actually isn't a surprise. Sir Paul, is a well known comic book fan. In the Beatles' film Help!, Superman comic books can be seen draped over the piano that McCartney is playing in the hotel scene. More obvious, McCartney's 1975 song 'Magneto & Titanium Man' has lyrics that refer to three Marvel super-villains: Crimson Dynamo, Magneto and Titanium Man. A year after that, McCartney met backstage with comic book creator, Jack Kirby. Thus, it's not inconceivable to believe that if Kramer's Silver Surfer film had worked out we would be rocking out to a score by Sir Paul.

SILVER SURFER - Norrin's life changed forever when a menacing alien spacecraft pierced Zenn-La's long-neglected defense systems. Convincing a Council of Scientists member to provide him with a spaceship, Radd soon confronted the invader, Galactus, who intended to consume Zenn-La. Radd offered to become his herald and seek out new worlds for him in exchange for Galactus sparing Zenn-La. Galactus agreed, transforming Radd into a silver-skinned, cosmic-powered super-being patterned after an adolescent fantasy plucked from Norrin's memories. Known thereafter as the Silver Surfer because of the silvery flying board he rode, Radd departed Zenn-La with Galactus. - Marvel Wiki
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