INT: Don Payne

Screenwriter
and fanboy Don Payne fulfilled a lifelong dream and goal when he
finally scored the opportunity to write the script for a Marvel
Comic film. An award-winning
writer for the animated TV series THE SIMPSONS, I met him earlier
last year when his first screenplay for MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND hit
the big screen. Payne seemed
just as sincere and pleasant when I interviewed him the second time
around on the set of his upcoming film FANTASTIC
FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER
SURFER.
Check out what the comic book enthusiast had to say about the
sequel.

Don
Payne

I last saw
you at the MY SUPER EX GIRLFRIEND junket.

Oh,
that’s right, yeah. That’s
right. That was an
interesting movie. I
wish it had made more money, but it didn’t.

I thought
it had a unique twist.

Yeah,
me too. I think it
suffered from, I mean I still think it’s great.
I’m proud of it, but I think it had a lot of competition
during the summer. And I wish it had been marketed more towards the
comic book genre…I think people were a little afraid of that.
I think they were going for more of a romantic comedy crowd,
and I just felt like it kind of alienated people the could have
helped us quite a bit. And a different type of marketing would have
helped us a lot. But I
mean it could also be that some people just don’t want to see a
super-powered woman beating up on a regular guy.
I personally enjoy that.
That’s what I wanted to see, and there it was up on the
screen.

Talk about
how you got involved with this script?

I
have been a Marvel Comics fan since I was very little, and so it’s
kind of been my career path, my career goal to work on a Marvel
Comics film. So I told
my agent that as soon as I switched agencies that I really wanted to
work with Marvel, can you get me in there, any way possible?
So he kept putting me in front of [the right people, you
know, over and over again, and I think I just wore them down and
they gave me an assignment, so…

How long
did it take you to complete the script?

You
know, it’s such a blur right now.
You have to forgive me, because I just, I’ve been, I got off
the plane about an hour ago. I
was up till midnight working on a Simpsons outline, then I arrived
here about four and a half hours later.
So I just got here. So
if I’m coherent, I’ve accomplished something today. But no, it seems
to be an ongoing process. I
met with him, I wrote it maybe six weeks, eight weeks, something
like that? But I’ve been
talking about it with him before for a while, shooting ideas back
and forth.

What was
your assignment? Did
they have specific comic arts they wanted to use in this version of
the film?

They
knew they wanted to use Silver Surfer.
They knew that they wanted to use Dr. Doom.
And they had some ideas about where they wanted the
characters to be at this moment in their lives, and so I basically
just took that and went with it.
There are little surprises in there that I don’t want to
spoil. They had a couple
of ideas for it, so…

Where are
the characters now?

Well,
Reed and Sue are engaged, and get married.
But Ben is at a pretty good place right now, because it was
really just showing he’s more confident in his own skin.
And Johnny is Johnny. He’s
got his own issues, and that’s, I don’t want to spoil it.
He’s pretty consistent.

Did you
stay true to the comics, or is this completely unique?

Well,
yeah, I mean…you’ve always got to go back to the comics.
That’s the source material.
I mean certainly because we’re doing Silver Surfer story
we’re pulling from the Fantastic Four, 48 through 50, tonight, and
we’re also doing 57 through 60, I believe it’s a Dr. Doom, Silver
Surfer story. And some
moments from Ultimate Extinction as well, a couple of things about,
and then, and some new stuff as well, kind of thrown in.

What was
your biggest challenge?

I
think the biggest challenge, well, it’s always challenging to come
on board a franchise that’s up and running, especially one that’s so
important to me, personally and so important to so many people out
there. You want to get
it right. You want to
make it fun. You want to be cute as the comics, but be able to
please the general audience as well, and make it entertaining for
them. When you write a
spec, before you sell it, it’s this little universe you create,
and you’re playing God, and you can do whatever you want, and you
can do it exactly like you want.

At
some point, eventually you have to turn it over and [unclear]
describe the process, but at some point you get to play God and make
things exactly how you want it.
With a franchise film like this, especially one based on
pre-existing characters, you can never do that, it’s always it’s
got a history, and there are a lot of people involved.
It’s a studio, it’s Marvel, it’s the producers, it’s
the stories, the director and you’re trying reconcile people’s
visions and your own and make it coherent, first of all, and
entertaining and fun for everybody.

How much
of the film focuses on the dysfunctional family aspect of it and
will you offer a whole a lot more action?

Yes.
There is a lot of action, but the characters are always based
on the dysfunctional family, from the first issue. I think that’s
how they were conceived. And so there is that, but there is a lot
more action, absolutely. We’re
hitting the ground running. Maybe it’s a challenge from the first
film to try to set up the origins and find the right town, and I
think we’ve done that.

What do
you think went wrong in the first one and what did you want to
change?

There
were certain things I wanted to do…and see what went right and
what went wrong and what I would kind of change.
I thought the one thing I really wanted to do on this was to
make Reed Richards more of a leader than what he was before, so
it’s no big scoop, but I thought the character could be a little
tougher, and a little more assertive, especially when he’s dealing
with such strong personalities, he’s got to rein them in and be in
authority. So that’s one
thing I wanted to do. I
want to make Dr Doom more evil and more like he is in the comics,
push him away a little bit from the corrupt billionaire into
somebody a little more threatening.

What can
we expect to see from Dr. Doom?

And
the only thing I’d say about Doom in this is that he’s certainly
progressing towards the Dr Doom that people know in the comics, much
more so than the first film.

Are there
any other elements from Fantastic Four that we will see for the
first time?

There
is, I think everybody has heard about Frankie Ray being in there.
His character has dropped in.
There are references to other characters that I don’t want
to go into. See, I
don’t want to spoil anything.
I mean I’m a kid who hates spoilers I have to say.
I’m paying a visit to the Battle Star Galactica set today,
and I guess they’re filming the season finale, so I’m conflicted,
because I want to see it but I don’t want to see it, so it’s
scattering around [in my mind.]

Is there
anything in the film that you really wanted to put in but didn’t
quite make it?

I
don’t want to go into that, because it’s something the might
appear in another film. So
there were a couple of things I wanted to do, but everything’s a
possibility. The
door’s not closed on that.

Do you
foresee a part three for the movie?

Well,
I certainly think the door is open for a Silver Surfer spin-off, and
I think that the franchise lends itself to a third film, yes,
definitely. There are
all kinds of questions left unanswered, which I think could be the
support of the future film, but it is self-contained.

What’s
your take on the Silver Surfer?

I
think it’s more traditional along the lines of the Silver Surfer
that actually for economics with its fairly trying to be hybrid.
I just saw a documentary, where, online on Me Too, which
accurately referred to the Silver Surfer as a fallen angel.
And I think that’s a good analogy.
I think he’s one of the most complicated characters in comic
history, maybe the most complicated.
Because he’s done some amazing selfless act by saving his own
planet and giving up the woman he loves to save her life, and yet
he’s become part of this horrible genocide on a cosmic scale, and
there’s a moral ambiguity there.
He’s a noble creature who has got a xenon-like attachment
from his actions and ultimately starts to become human again…

Does the
film touch upon his back-story?

It
does touch upon his back-story.
I think it could be more fully explored in a Silver Surfer
movie. I think Silver
Surfer is, for a lot of the film a mysterious force, an incredible
power, and the FF try and understand what he is and what his
presence on the planet means.

What did
you like the most about this assignment?
How did you picture the Silver Surfer?

I
liked it all, man. I’ve
got to say, I mean I loved writing for the four characters, because
I know them. They were
like a family to me when I was growing up.
And the Silver Surfer was great; I mean he’s a challenge.
You’ve got to maintain him as this mysterious guy but also
noble and very intelligent and also dispassionate and that’s the
challenge of the thing. I
think he’s going to look really cool, from what I hear.
He’s going to look very tasteful.

Was it a
challenge to write about the Silver Surfer without quite knowing how
he would be conceived creatively?

[I
thought] I’ll write it as best I can, and see how they do it.
I have confidence that it’s going to be awesome.
I really do. I
think the Silver Surfer is really going to draw in a lot of people,
for good reason. I think
it’s going to be great eye candy.
It’s going to be amazing.

Had you
written the first part as well, do you think you would have
approached part 2 differently?

I
think, as I said, I think it was a real challenge writing the first
film, because everyone was trying to find their footing, people were
trying to find the tone, and find out how their selves within
character, and I think it would have been a real challenge for any
writer, writing that first film.
I have a lot of sympathy for anybody in that situation trying
to get a franchise off the ground, because there are a lot of things
going against you. It’s
a big hill to climb. So
I don’t think, would I have written things differently here, as
opposed to the first film? It
would be easier to make Doom a malevolent and evil character that
everyone knows a lot, having had, the first film certainly, but I
think we’re getting there.

Can you
talk about some of the issues that Reed and Sue will face with their
relationship?

I
think that they are trying to figure out exactly how to make their
superhero marriage work. How
is this going to play out? Can
they have a normal life and be superheroes?
Can they raise a family and be superheroes?
That’s the big issue I think they face.

Will we
see Sue’s powers have an effect on her physically?

I
think when she exerts herself on a great level, you may see another
nosebleed. But I think
when she exerts herself tremendously, something’s going on in her
brain, and it takes toll on her physically.
I think they’re more comfortable in their powers, and they’re
able to do things that they might not have been able to do in the
first film.

How much
did you have to take into account what the hardcore fan base may
want?

Well,
I know what the fan base wants, because I’m part of the fan base.
I’m one of them. I
try to stay as true to the comics as I possibly can.
But you can’t do a literal translation from the comics to the
screen. So there are
changes you have to make.

Were you
very prescriptive of how the Fantasticar would look?

I
described how, I didn’t give the exact physical description of
tires would look like this, and it would be blowing out fire here,
but the essence of how it should be.
You know, it’s cool. It’s
sleek. It’s fast.
So that was the main thing.
I think they’ve done a great job.
I think it looks really cool from the designs I’ve seen.
I think you’ll like it.

What are
some of the dilemmas the Fan Four face in terms of their celebrity
status?

Well,
I think that when you become a superhero team and you don’t have a
secret identity, you run into a problem of celebrity, a lack of
privacy, you can’t really go outside to a restaurant without being
swarmed, and I think this is some of the things that they’re
dealing with. Especially
Reed and Sue were talking about a long-term relationship, and
ultimately raising a family, is it right to bring someone into this
world? Especially when
you have monsters doming from the negative zone?
That’s not in this film.
Maybe in the future.

What
changes can we expect from the Baxter Building?

The
Baxter Building, because they’re more successful and are making
more money, has been refurbished.
It has Reed’s lab. So
it’s not as grungy. It’s
more high tech. It’s
slick. I haven’t seen
it.

Which
comics did you read growing up?

Surprisingly,
I grew up as a Marvel [Comics] kid…of course I know Batman and
Green Lantern and most of the Justice Society, but I haven’t been
following or reading their comics that much, except for big event
things, like Identity Crisis, I read that, I thought it was
excellent. And that was
our kind of force. That
was great.

How do you
read the difference between Marvel and DC, when you say you’re a
Marvel guy? What does
that mean to you?

There
was something about the Marvel Universe that really appealed to me.
It seemed more real to me than the DC universe, partly
because it was New York, and Los Angeles, and the characters seemed
more flawed in their secret identities than they did with DC
Universe. I mean Bruce
Wayne was, had his problems but he was also a millionaire, so…
Peter Parker was somebody I could identify with, at that age,
somebody who was picked on, and nerdy, and it was a wishful thing
for me. I mean that’s
what drew me to Marvel. But
I liked DC…And I’ve been reading this X Mark.

What do
you make of the electronic approach on the new show TV show Heroes?

I
love the fact that there are so many characters, so many good
stories that can hook you in. If
there’s one that doesn’t really appeal to you, just wait a minute;
you’re going to get something else that you like.
I love that. And
they’re all origin stories, and all these origin stories are always
really interesting. And
I like the mystery of it all, like you wonder who’s doing what,
and what is their relationship?
And what is their power?