Bad News for Batman: David Goyer’s Co-Writing the Next Movie

Posted by on February 8th, 2010   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics
Source: Deadline Hollywood

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I’m sure we’ve all been dying to know what’s going on with the next Batman movie, but as you might expect, Christopher Nolan hasn’t been in any hurry to dive in to his follow-up to The Dark Knight. Last we heard, Nolan and Warner Brothers were planning to make some sort of announcement in January, but here we are in February and that obviously didn’t happen. With post-production work on Inception still ongoing, Nolan is probably tied up with that, however, in the meantime it sounds like his brother Jonah may be starting to work on a third Batman script. He’s not writing it alone, however; we’ve just learned that Batman Begins co-writer David S. Goyer is returning to collaborate once again. Uh oh.

According to Nikki Finke, Goyer has left the ABC show FlashForward after acting as the showrunner for most of the first season in order to dedicate more time to his big screen projects. One of those projects will be the third Batman film. Now, let’s be clear here: Goyer did get a story credit on The Dark Knight, but it was Christopher and Jonah Nolan who wrote the screenplay. Personally I don’t have a ton of confidence in Goyer’s writing, as I felt the script was one of the weakest parts of Batman Begins, and by contrast, one of the strongest parts of The Dark Knight. It’s possible that he will only be helping to shape the story for part 3 again, and I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but I have to say that I’m a little worried about having him back in the mix. I was hoping that The Dark Knight proved that the Nolan brothers could tackle it alone. Goyer’s other features in development include Ghost Rider 2, Super Max, a Scanners remake, and X-Men Origins: Magneto. What do you think, are you glad to have him back working on the next Batman film?



  • MJS

    I think that Johnathan Nolan should be the real news here, it’s a good sign that there’s a chance Christopher being involved too. I’m more confident in the Nolans than I am weary of Goyer.

  • KYriakos

    as long as Chris Nolan is in charge i have no worries..
    He will have the final say on everything.. (right?)

  • Rusty James

    It is weird news. I wonder why they feel they need him. Surely the two Nolans are up to the task of writing a screenplay.

  • Rusty

    Whoa Sean! Hit that panic button a little early…

    Nolan wont let anyone fuck it up.

    What WB needs to do focus on is international distro for the next Batman. I was looking at the international BO and it was very low, How the fuck did the Dark Knight make so little internationally?

  • As long as the Nolan’s are in.

  • KYriakos

    Maybe Goyer is not that useless guys. He probably adds to the table those ”Cool” ideas that Nolan would have never thought of putting into a movie of his own anyways. Like that crazy motorcycle batman rides on the pic. I don’t think that was Nolans idea.. Chris will probably take control later on and uses some of those cool ideas to the final film.
    Goyer is going to write the basic plot and then Nolans will innovate it into something beyond an action movie.

    Just like they did in the first two movies..

    Its the 4rth one i am worried about… We all know that Goyer dreams of the day Nolan is gets tired of the franchise- so he can then take over the project..

  • Ian

    I feel like Goyers and Nolan initially had an idea for this being a trilogy? If this is the case then his involvement in the 3rd part makes sense. Also, I think that based on what they did with the 2nd movie, they could certainly set things up to have a proper conclusion in the 3rd and final movie. Then Goyers or whoever can take over and do yet another of those all to popular reboots.

  • gluv

    I don’t know why this is so-called “bad news”. David Goyer collaborated in both Nolan’s Batman films and both of them were great!

    I think they need Goyer because he’s more in tune with the comics than the Nolan brothers are.

  • The Man

    Oh is he doing the story or the script? Goyer is a horrible writer. Can you imagine if they gave him the director’s chair?

  • bullet3

    You don’t have to imagine, just watch Blade: Trinity.
    He made a sequel to one of the most awesome comic-book movies ever, starring one of the most badass comic-book characters, and proceeded to sideline him in favor of a bunch of young hipsters who listen to i-pods and wear trendy clothing.

  • The Man

    I will concede that bullet3 I loved blade 1 and 2. But everything else was a disastrous.

  • Fatbologna

    Yeah, Goyer’s a pariah on his own, but the Nolans will keep him reigned in.

  • Henrik

    Die David Goyer, Die!

    Needless to say I am fuming. I’m OUTRAGED!

  • Maopheus

    This is a bit too inside Hollywood. Unless we’re sitting int the room and seeing exactly who’s writing what and contributing what, there’s no way to know what Goyer’s role will be. Also, I’m not too sure how you determined that the script was one of the weaker parts of BB. In what way? Do you mean the story (elements, set pieces, character interactions) or the actual words, the dialogue? Please elaborate.

  • Chee

    Rusty James – The Nolan brothers don’t know the Batman series as well as David Goyer. They need him.

  • Rusty James

    @ the Nolan brothers don’t know the Batman series as well as David Goyer

    good. The Nolan’s have something better than knowing the series. They have a vision for the films.

    Goyer might know a lot about batman comics. But he doesn’t know about characters or dialogue and his last acts are a mess.

  • Yeah I know I’m nitpicking, and I know we don’t have the whole story here but I do think Goyer sucks.

    With regards to Batman Begins, I thought a lot of the dialogue was cheesy and some of the actual plot elements were weak as well. If he’s just helping with comic book knowledge though, I assume it will work out fine.

  • Jason_Miami

    Goyer as a “co-writer” isn’t the problem; it’s him as a sole writer or director that’s the problem. I’ve liked a lot of movies he’s had a small involvement in. If you let him go wild you’ll end up with crap but if you have someone sensible there to second-guess him then he can be a good collaborator. At least that’s what I’ve noticed. I agree it’s good to have someone with a good amount of knowledge of the fiction. But for the love of God just don’t give him creative control!

  • Everyone seems to be harping on Goyer and his writing and then talking about how awesome Blade II was. People need to check IMDB. Goyer wrote Blade II and also the fantastic movie Dark City. I’m not worried at all as his team up with the Nolan’s have produced 2 great films.

  • fuckingshit

    Didnt Goyer also write the story for The Dark Knight? Not saying that the Nolan brothers are worse writers (they are far superior), but how do you know Goyer made TDKs bad?

  • fuckingshit

    **Die David Goyer, Die!
    Needless to say I am fuming. I’m OUTRAGED!
    **

    Furious!? For What? If it hadn’t been for Goyer, Nolan wouldn’t have had the opportunity to direct the fucking franchise. Besides, the Nolan brothers aren’t exactly TDK fans, and they don’t know a lot about it. It is Goyer, the comic book freak, who’s the one keeping the direction inside the actual comic book world.

  • Maopheus

    @Sean, yeah that’s what I thought. BB just suffered from the first movie in the series syndrome where you have to set up the origin and all that. I think maybe you had problems with the bad jokes and one-liners like “Can you drive stick” or “I gotta get me one of those”. I could have done without that. I think if someone was responsible for those lines it must have been Goyer, as they referenced the previous Batman movies. I also had a problem with the overall premise that the League of Shadows was conspiring to bring down cities that had fallen into sin and crime. I thought the beginning part was great where Wayne learns his craft by basically incorporating ninja skills into his repertoire. If Goyer knows comic books then he probably was responsible for incorporating the story elements from the graphic novel “Year One”. The more serious tone, Bruce Wayne viewing his training and preparation to be Batman in an almost military kind of approach, naming the commissioner Loeb and Gordon’s corrupt partner Flass, etc.

  • As long as he doesn’t direct then there is no need to cry.

  • Josh

    See… I’d argue that The Dark Knight was the weaker of the two movies (neither of which really struck me as being good). The Dark Knight had serious pacing issues and some really poorly written characters. Were it not for Heath Ledger, the movie would have been wholly forgettable. So I’m hopeful that Goyer can put the Nolans back on the right track and move back towards the much better written Batman Begins, and hopefully exceed it.

  • Rolf

    I think it’s a good thing that Nolan isn’t in a hurry to do the next BATMAN. I never did understand why the franchises had to be continued that fast… look what it did to SPIDER-MAN… it even killed the franchise!

  • proteon

    Well you were right. TDKR was a mess and the dialogues were cringeworthy.

  • Riccardo De Franco

    Goyer was not involved in the screenplay, just the story credit, as in TDK.
    And no, TDKR was not a mess.