David Goyer on Batman Begins
A forum member of Batman on Film has posted an excerpt of a Cinescape interview with David Goyer about writing Batman Begins. Here's a clip...
"My whole life, that's all I wanted to do was write a Batman movie," says Goyer. "It was excruciating for me because here I was being offered to work with an amazing director, but time-wise there was no way I could do it. But his agent called back and said, 'You have to do it.'" By negotiating to only do a first draft, with Nolan rewriting and revising from there, Goyer got his dream and the result is a Batman movie the writer thinks fans are going to eat up. "It's the most faithful to the comic books and it certainly darker than the Schumacher films," admits Goyer… "It treats the story seriously and it's also quite romantic. We were determined to create a new classic and we treated the subject matter seriously."
More from the messageboards:
Around the time of Blade: Trinity was in pre-production, Goyer found himself talking with director Christopher Nolan about Batman Begins. The timing was off, but after a little begging, Goyer relented and helped to shape up what would hopefully be Batman’s grand return to the big screen. “My whole life, that’s all I wanted to do was write a Batman movie,” says Goyer. “It was excruciating for me because here I was being offered to work with an amazing director, but time-wise there was no way I could do it. But his agent called back and said, ‘You have to do it.’” By negotiating to only do a first draft, with Nolan rewriting and revising from there, Goyer got his dream and the result is a Batman movie the writer thinks fans are going to eat up. “It’s the most faithful to the comic books and it certainly darker than the Schumacher films,” admits Goyer… “It treats the story seriously and it’s also quite romantic. We were determined to create a new classic and we treated the subject matter seriously.”
With all the prime villains previously exploited, Goyer and Nolan went after two of the most logical choices – Ra’s Al Ghul and Scarecrow. “We weren’t sure what villains we wanted to use, but we knew it should be villains that hadn’t been used in the films,” says Goyer. “At the same time we didn’t want to make any up. If you look at the rogues gallery, the ones that hadn’t been used were Scarecrow and Ra’s Al Ghul. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring those characters in. We knew we were going to do an original story, but if we do this right, once were done, we can then reintroduce the rogues gallery the audience has met before in the movies, but in a new way.”
Two things stood out for me in this article:
1. The filmakers are committed to making a fantastic film.
2. The 'draft' script that has been circulated will not be the final product.
Check out the whole string on the Batman on Film messageboards