Written by Daryn Kirscht
With the U.S. still in the thick of it regarding COVID-19, the decision was made to still give fans the Comic Con they had been excited for, but in a more socially distant way: Comic-Con @ Home.
David S. Goyer, a screenwriter very well-known to comic book fans, had an hour-long Q&A panel in which he delved into numerous topics regarding a plethora of his previous comic book films. The panel was hosted by Jeff Goldsmith of Backstory Magazine.
He spent a good deal of time discussing New Line Cinema’s Blade. Coming off the heels of Spawn, Goyer wrote a script that was initially budgeted around $6-8 million, but after the script was examined, but new budget rose to just under $50 million. Thankfully, the studio rolled the dice and it became a huge hit.
Goyer recalled, “It was the first time in my career where I got to write exactly what I wanted to write and I didn’t have a bunch of editorial interference.”
The next two films in the series were not quite as successful. The second and third films had many more executives in meetings and as the old saying goes, there were too many cooks in the kitchen. The trilogy he had initially pitched ended up being picked apart to the point where Goyer described the idea of his trilogy pitch making it on-screen as “debatable.”
It was not the first time Goyer experienced that kind of executive interference. He brought up his time on The Crow: City of Angels and described it as “a masterclass in how not to adapt a comic book.” After declining the request to write the film, he only had one request of his own: “I’ll do it, but only if the title character can be female.”
The idea came from the tragic on-set accident of Brandon Lee. While Miramax initially gave Goyer the green light, they “threw that out the window” and decided to move forward with someone that looked exactly like Brandon Lee.
Goyer also wrote a script for a Nick Fury adaptation (long before Marvel Studios’ inception). That was another project that had eventually changed hands and was completely altered.
The same can also be said for his time writing Doctor Strange. When the studio told him there was too much magic in it, Goyer fired back, “’Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you wanted Doctor Strange, but I guess you wanted Doctor Mundane,’ and then they fired me.”
Goyer explained what was likely the thought process behind studio executives at the time: “There was probably a 10-year period where a lot of executives just had no idea what they were doing and would profess to be comic book fans without having read a comic book in their lives.”
He then recounted his time working with Christopher Nolan on The Dark Knight trilogy.
Goyer co-wrote the script for Batman Begins with Nolan, but was only credited with writing the story for The Dark Knight while Christopher Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, co-wrote the script.
He reminisced about how the only way they were able to even make those films was because of the way the property was previously “driven into the ground.” Warner Bros. knew they needed to do something different and a grounded, realistic approach worked for Batman.
He also explained how that concept was not as easy to convince to executives when it came to Man of Steel. Goyer touched on a few of the film’s key scenes, including the tornado scene with Jonathan Kent as well as the final scene with Superman and Zod.
He explained how Jonathan Kent didn’t want Clark to never reveal himself to the world, but how Clark needed to grow and mature (as a person and also in regards to his abilities) so that when that fateful day would come, he would be ready to bear the immense responsibility. Goyer explained further by adding that when Clark did finally become Superman, it led to Zod’s arrival on Earth, which nearly wiped out human existence.
The most interesting tidbit of information about Man of Steel, though, came in the form of a scene that Goyer wrote, but was not filmed. “Jonathan takes young Clark hunting and they kill a deer. Young Clark is gutted by the act and Jonathan says, ‘It’s a powerful thing to take a life, even if you’re forced to take a life.’”
While Goyer discussed his writing process, working from 10:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. everyday and being a heavy outliner, he also brought up his upcoming projects. He is working on a Netflix adaptation of Sandman with Neil Gaiman, as well as an adaptation of Foundation for Apple TV+. Foundation filmed about 40% before coronavirus became a pandemic while Sandman has not started filming, according to Goyer. Both are hoping to begin/resume filming in October.
Even though Goyer did not have time to discuss other projects from his past – including Jumper and a Flash film that never made it to filming – it was and always is a pleasure to hear him talk about his career.
