Screen Rant » the invisible man

No New Batman Script For Awhile; David S. Goyer Is A Busy Man

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:06:37 +0000

The whole blogosphere has been going nuts lately, trying to predict which villains and story lines will make it into the next installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins franchise, following the monster success (numbers never lie) of The Dark Knight.

We’ve all heard the rumors, such as “Angelina Jolie is going to star as Catwoman!” or “Johnny Depp is going to be the Riddler!” But unless some of us have developed precognitive vision, it’s all been a lot of wishful thinking, at best, blatant propagandizing at worst. (Count me among the guilty in the latter case.)

Well, there’s one man who definitely isn’t letting all the Internet uproar get him in a tizzy–and ironically enough, he’s the man who truly matters in this case: David S. Goyer, the red-hot screenwriter of both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight will have his plate nicely filled between now and another Batman script.

Yes, I’m sorry to report folks: David S. Goyer is NOT a Batman-movie-making machine. He (unfortunately) has an existence beyond sitting in a room with no windows, chained to a chair, trying to crank out the next great bat-flick. If you haven’t seen Goyer’s list of credits on IMDB, you need to. You’ll realize (as I did,) that the man has been writing great movies of all flavors, for years now. (Even Jumper was pretty good. On paper, at least.)

So the obvious question is: if not trying to appease rabid Dark Knight fans, what WILL Goyer be using his golden pen for in the next few months? Well, the answers have recently come to light and on the whole, they sound pretty promising.

“I’m writing a new version of ‘The Invisible Man’ for Universal,” said the red-hot writer/director, who was at Comic-Con recently to promote “The Unborn,” a horror flick due in theaters next year. “I’m in the process of doing ['Invisible Man'] right now, and I’m working with some conceptual artists in tandem with writing the script. I’m actually working with one of the artists from ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight…’”

An Invisible Man movie? Hmmmm… Well the only examples I have to draw upon are a bunch of old TV series, a crap Chevy Chase flick (is that an oxymoron?) and that creepy “what if The Invisible Man was a psycho?” knock-off, Hollow Man. And while hearing the name “Invisible Man” doesn’t quite make me do the Pee-Wee Herman dance with excitement, it does intrigue the mind what Goyer would have in store for the character:

“My take is kind of an extrapolation. It actually deals with a nephew of the first character…It involves Scotland Yard getting their hands on the current Invisible Man and basically saying, ‘Wow, you’d be a really good secret agent to send into Imperial Russia right now,’” an enthusiastic Goyer said of the plot. “It starts off from there… I don’t want to give too much away, but I took what being invisible could mean to the next logical extreme,” he explained. “We do a lot of crazy things in it that are sort of far beyond what anyone’s done with it yet.”

Far beyond Hollow Man 2? If you say so.

Further up MY alley, however, is the report that Goyer will also be writing and directing the second installment in the X-Men Origins franchise, X-Men Origins: Magneto. In the same interview, Goyer stated that Magneto will likely be the first of his projects to hit the big screen, and seemed more than eager to prove that he could direct a blockbuster comic book film, just as well as could work a pencil and paper writing one. (We’ll forgive him for Blade: Trinity.)

Personally, I’ve always thought that opening scene with Magneto imprisoned in a Nazi Death Camp was by far one of the more interesting sequences in X-Men. I would love to see that story stretched out to its full length; though even Goyer will have to walk a tight line to avoid a Hannibal Rising quagmire–i.e., ruining a great villain by trying to “humanize” him through some crap back story. It’ll also be interesting to see how Magneto balances with the continuity of the recently announced X-Men: First Class. (I mean there is a potential intersection when you get to the point where Magneto and Xavier construct the school together. But I’m sure Goyer has a plan for that.)

So which David S. Goyer film are you chomping hardest at the bit for? X-Men Origins: Magneto? The Invisible Man? (Perhaps that long-awaited Flash movie he’s rumored to have turned in a script for?) Or do you plan to keep riding the band-wagon for that next Batman flick? Let us know where you stand.

Source: MTV News

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 10, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:22:41 +0000

Welcome to another fun filled installment of Screen Rant’s Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We see who is penning Flash Gordon, we learn some details about Alex Proyas’ Dracula Year Zero, discover what David Goyer is working on, Channing Tatum lines up something for after GI Joe and The Conversation goes to television.

1. The Flash Gordon Remake/ adaptation has now grabbed Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to pen the script. The Neil Moritiz produced, Breck Eisner (Sahara) directed film is in production at Columbia.

I just hope the film is more like the 1980’s movie and less like the Si-Fi channel show.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

2. Speaking of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, their script for Dracula Year Zero is to be directed by Robot and Dark City director Alex Proyas. Proyas recently gave some details about the Dracula prequel/origin story:

“You could see it as a prequel to Bram Stoker’s novel, in some ways. All the cool bits out of Francis Coppola’s “Dracula”. You can see it that way as well.”

It sounds like a cool idea. I hope that they change the title. It worked for Batman in a comic – that’s it!

Source: Moviehole

3. David Goyer spoke with MTV about his upcoming film slate, the writer-director appears to be a very busy man. He’s got a Magneto film in the works, an Invisible Man film in the pipeline as well as a slew of comic book adaptations on the way.

Goyer had this to say:

“I’m writing a new version of ‘The Invisible Man’ for Universal I’m in the process of (doing that) right now, and I’m working with some conceptual artists in tandem with writing the script. I’m actually working with one of the artists from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. So it could be ‘Magneto’, or it could be The Invisible Man next.”

“Well, ‘The Invisible Man’, the Universal film, is a great movie, a Claude Rains film. My take is kind of an extrapolation. It actually deals with a nephew of the first character. It’s got some of the characters from the H.G. Wells book, but it’s kind of a continuation. It involves Scotland Yard getting their hands on the current Invisible Man and basically saying, ‘Wow, you’d be a really good secret agent to send into Imperial Russia right now. It starts off from there.”

“It kind of crosses a lot of genres. It’s very steam punk. I don’t want to give too much away, but I took what being invisible could mean to the next logical extreme. We do a lot of crazy things in it that are sort of far beyond what anyone’s done with it yet.”

I always enjoy a good Invisible Man film, so I really hope that it gets cooking before Magneto, because who really wants a Magneto spin-off?

Not me.

Source: MTV

4. Forthcoming GI Joe star Channing Tatum is attached to a free running film at New Line Cinema. The script written by Kevin Lund and T.J. Scott involves a pair of Parkour experts who use their skills in order to carry out crimes. The film will be directed by Rychie Smith, and it is currently without a title.

Tatum’s character will be called Peter Parkour.

Just kidding.

Man – Parkour is so 2005

Source: Variety

5. I have a real soft spot for the Francis Ford Coppola directed film The Conversation, starring Gene Hackman. The film plays like a low key prequel to Hackman’s Enemy of The State (that co-starred Will Smith). Seriously, watch the two movies back to back in a double bill – it’s worth it!

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Erik Jenresen (Band of Brothers) are writing a television series based on the film for cable channel AMC.

The series will have the same 1970’s setting as the film.

I’m pretty interested in this, but as it’s a remake I won’t get too excited. The original is a masterpiece and it includes a beautiful performance from Gene Hackman and a strangely creepy turn from Harrison Ford.

Source: Variety

That’s it for this week. See you at the movies!