Big day for comic book movie news, it seems. Hot on the heels of the Captain America casting wishlist comes this bit of news: Latino Review is reporting that David Goyer has been hired to write the new Superman movie, which will be called Man of Steel.
This can’t come as a huge surprise to anyone following word that Christopher Nolan was brought on to ‘godfather’ a new take on the character. There are a lot of people who somehow think that Goyer is a peripheral part of the success of The Dark Knight, but he’s right there with the Bros Nolan when it comes to breaking the story that everybody loved in that movie. And the Nolans really dig Goyer.
What’s Goyer’s take on Superman? Latino Review says to look to the John Byrne stories – think the Man of Steel miniseries, in fact – and the sense of modernity (sorta, I guess. Those books are from the 80s) and fun. They say that while Luthor and Brainiac will be in the script this isn’t going to be an origin story and the film will assume you know all the main characters and settings, including a Daily Planet hit hard by the internet.
Brandon Routh won’t be back, which means a new search for Superman. One weird thing that had been floating around for years now is the idea that Legendary Pictures was interested in creating a fully CGI Superman and hiring an actor to play only Clark Kent. I don’t know if this news has already broken out there – everybody I know has heard this exact same story – and I don’t know if that concept is still in play, but it would allow Legendary and Warner Bros to always have Superman in their stable and only have to worry about casting new Clarks, which is probably much easier. Post-Avatar it seems more and more likely somebody would try a stunt like this. Again, I don’t know if this concept is still on the table and Latino Review doesn’t report on it, but it’s something that’s real and been bandied about.
I’m skeptical about Nolan as the shepherd of this series, but if his job ends up being simply getting Goyer into place and then protecting his script, I’m okay with it. Goyer’s got more comic book cred than Nolan, in my opinion, and the Byrne namedrop is perfect. That was the run that got me to be a Superman fan, and for a couple of years there was some truly interesting storytelling going on in the four Superman titles. Byrne definitely left enough of a groundwork to work with – but I do hope Goyer avoids Byrne’s version of Brainiac, which was Milton Fine, a sideshow mentalist who Luthor souped up. I kind of like the robot guy who flies around in a big Terminator skull with tentacles.
32 comments
I hope they bring on Tim Story. Instant classic.
Devin you have GOT to be fucking kidding me that Nolan is somehow a bad thing but Goyer is alright. David Goyer has comic book cred? Please explain that nugget. The guy made the abysmal Blade 3 and then wrote Batman Begins, a film you admit you don't like, and a film in which the screenplay is by far the biggest flaw. The only reason that The Dark Knight turned out as good as it did (again, you yourself have said TDK is superior to BB) is because Goyers involvement was limited. If by "cred" you mean credibility making comic book projects dumbed down crap then yeah he certainly does have a lot of cred. Goyer is easily one of the worst screenwriters in Hollywood, barely a step above Kurtzman and Orci, in fact I have a lot more faith in those guys one day writing something worth praise than I do David Goyer. On a very fundamental level the guy does not understand comic book properties, he's also about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and writes straight to the lowest common denominator.
Devin, you forgot to mention that it will be in 3D.
Meh. Like Spiderman, I'll skip this reboot and just wait for the next inevitable one.
Completely agree w/#2 here. Outside of the fact that Goyer's WAY overrated (and he completely RUINED Blade 3, balls to bones), you yourself HATE BB and TDK – both of which has Goyer's unmistakable stink on them. How in the living hell can you laud Goyer's involvement in this?
Aww…man! I liked Brandon Routh! That dude got the shaft (and I'm not just referring to Bryan Singer's penis).
AHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I am so sick of Goyer. He is so overrated. Now I love the Batman movies, but if Batman Begins has the same plot as another penned script of his The Shadow (go back and see for yourself).
The first Blade is great. He is a really cool cat, but come on!!!
It's like when they used to hire Akiva Goldsman for everything. Sucks.
I'm still waiting for Brandon Routh to star in "Glen and Gary suck Ross's meaty cock and drop their hairy nuts in his eager mouth."
Life's tough when you're a cocksucker. Please feel free to sign back up so I can ban you again. Also please feel free to troll the comments so I can delete your posts there as well.
I like where they are pulling the source material. I think another good option would be Tim Sale's and Jeff Leob's 4 issue work Superman For All Seasons. Self contained story that is not only good but unconventional in the narration.
There was a live action TV version of Superman, back in the day, that reverted to a cartoon every time Superman would jump into the air to fly.
That sounds more enjoyavble to me than a full-CGI Superman reverting to a live actor as Clark. If I wanted Superman to rape my eyes, I would just pick up the last 10 years of comics.
I really don't get the hate on Nolan. The Dark Knight is one of the few comic book films that feels real and believable, and in my opinion, Nolan has yet to make anything resembling a bad film. While I don't know if he's right to shepherd the Superman project, I'm willing to follow him on faith alone. Let Devin stick to his backfiring guns and hyper-sensitivity about comments, and watch this turn out to be something worth seeing.
I don't get that CGI Superman idea. So, Superman would always look the same, but different actors would play Clark? Does that mean he'd be able to change his facial structure somehow?
They were always going to go back to Man of Steel as the source material. Though it's nowhere near as good, it was the Superman equivalent of Dark Knight Returns and Year One for modernization. CGI Supes I'm not sure about – but it's worth some R & D before they set it in stone. Goyer is the Bros Nolan's rent-a-nerd, so they don't have to trawl through the endless shit of the comics. He pitches them a bunch of ideas based on his nerd-knowledge and they cherry pick. Lets hope he's read All Star for pointers of Luthor etc.
I love fanboys. Goyer ruined Blade 3!!!! Waaaah – he also wrote the good ones, morons.
Superman sucks anyways so who gives a shit. He is the lamest of all superheroes except for Green Lantern.
Ew – Goyer is the hackiest of all hacks – if he's done anything of note, it's by luck or happenstance.
Dev…Harry is saying the story is bupkus?
Wow I totally disagree with your analysis.
Goyer has very little comic book cred.The Blade movies were mediocre and the script for Batman Begins was formulaic and predictable. He co-wrote some decent JSA comics but nothing spectacular.
Nolan has always been brilliant. Every movie. Post Dark Knight (which Goyer had limited input on) I would say he has bulletproof credibility, with fans of comics and of movies generally.
Agree with # 2 and 5. Witness the Blade 2 GDT commentary track where they spend a lot of the time making fun of Goyer's writing- the best movies he's been involved with are the ones where he has a director or producer to reign him in and elevate the material.
meh. I never liked the John Byrne reboot stuff honestly. Made the Superman mythos lifeless and dull. Alan Moore, among others, proved you could use the original Superman stuff and still make it "dark" or "realistic" or whatever adjective you wish to use. And I wish they'd just leave Luthor out of this one, we've seen him too many times. Metallo, the Parasite, Mongul – there are plenty of villains they could use to avoid making yet another version of SUPERMAN LIFTS THINGS: THE MOTION PICTURE. (Just no Doomsday, please.)
Full CGI Superman but different Clarks? Err, won't the Clarks have to have the same face as the Superman? Be a bit stupid if Clark was Brandon Routh but then every time he took the glasses off turned into Dean Cain.
The Good: Singer's dream of continuing the 70's superman movies retard chronology is dead. The Bad: David Goyer is shit. Through and through. The Ugly: What the fuck are you talking about with a cgi superman? What the hell, Devin. I get how that isn't your idea, but god damn, don't even bring those rumours to daylight, dude. That's some of the most fucked up shit I've ever heard. Clark doesn't morph into Superman, that's some bullshit. NO. Also ugly, any fucking attempt to modernize this shit. The original movies failed (in my opinion), Superman Returns failed, I don't get why nobody has ever tried to just set a superman movie in the 30s/40s/50s. It would make brainiac's futuristic technology even more fucked up and would let you put batman in there without fucking with the modern Nolan continuity. Easy peasy, dumbasses. I hope it's dope, but it gives me doubts. I wish this was Mark Millar's epic Superman trilogy instead. His Red Son is my favorite Superman book yet. Sigh. We'll always have Green Lantern, I guess. That movie's going to be awesome.
Hello? DC? Did you guys forget the awesome Grant Morrison All Star Superman? And give Goyer a break. He may not be the best writer, but he is by far less of a hack than Akiva Goldsman or Orci/Kurtzman.
Goyer solo ain't worth much, but with Nolan behind, and the Byrne influence–this might actually be good..
I thought Devin knew stuff about movies. Guess not. Goyer is mediocrity personified, except when it comes to Blade 3, and then he's shit. People above are right, he's only good when he has superior directors tampering his lameness.
CGI-enhanced Superman=sure…I'd rather they bulk up his physique with some subtle CG instead of rubber padding.
However, all-CGI Superman=retarded…
Interesting news to say the least. I personally don't think handing nolan superman is a smart move. TDK while impressive technicallly with the whole villain plot stuff and the boats, is hampered by its dependence on 'realism' for a comicbook movie character in a bat costume and imo focuses more on joker than batman. Say what you want about superman returns, I've read it all, even the outrageous nonsense from the gay-bashers calling the movie gay, but it is a superman movie from beginning to end. And what the hell, how many loose sequels with no origin story can superman franchise handle?
Look, the bottomline here is that the Nolan's and Goyer respected the material they had for Batman and produced two excellent movies. Yeah they have flaws, but ultimately the good overwhemlingly out paced the bad.
David Goyer actually does have comic book cred. He co-wrote the Justice Society of America with Geoff Johns for years. I think he understands Superman is not Batman, and can change the tone accordingly. Now as far as Blade is concerned, yes, Blade 3 was a major screw up, but as was already said, he wrote both of the good ones as well.
I don't understand why David Goyer is still thought of as a great film writer. It must be "Batman Begins," which, let's be honest, wasn't the greatest written thing and had many douchey lines ("Why do we fall, Master Bruce?") "The Dark Knight" was written by the Nolan brothers.
I hate to come off like an internet fanboy dickhead, but Goyer just seems to fail upward. But here's a rundown of Goyer's latest:
Blade: Trinity
Jumper
The Unborn
I think it's funny how Nolan's role in Superman is being misunderstood by some, and even his hightened realism approach in the Batman films as well. I think this comes from this conception that superheroes can only be set in fantastical and otherwordly environments, and that Nolan purpsely went against the grain and turned superheroes realistic. But not only did Nolan not invent the realistic superhero, he didn't invent the realistic Batman. Just look at Batman: Year One, which, while not completely realistic, is arguably the most realistic take on the character, moreso than Batman Begins. A realistic Batman is a valid interpretation of the character, one Nolan happens to like a lot (hence the style of his Batman movies). It doesn't mean that Nolan automatically has realism on the brain when it comes to the more fantastical heroes, like Superman. He's a smart guy, he knows that Superman is very different from Batman, and even if he was part of the creative-process of this Superman film (which I don't, I believe he's just making sure the films makers that come on board and do the character right), it's not really something to be skeptical about, unless you get the wrong idea and react without thinking much, which it seems like some people are already doing (not a lot, but a small minority).
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