Last summer, when it was announced Warner Bros. was moving ahead with Batman vs. Superman, everyone (and you know who they are) said production would move ahead based on the screenplay by David Goyer. Those who have listened to the Major Spoilers Podcast over the last couple of weeks know we’re a little hesitant on Goyer’s hit and miss successes, and it looks like Warner Bros. is concerned too, as a new writer has been brought on board.
This is all according to The Hollywood Reporter which claims Argo writer Chris Terrio has been brought in to write a draft of the movie. This isn’t anything really new as multiple writers are often brought in to cleanup scripts or add additional scenes to tighten everything up. With Ben Affleck as Batman, it wouldn’t surprise me if the producer/director/actor asked the writer to come in to punch some things up. Of course Goyer is also busy with a number of other DC Comics movie adaptations, so that could have lead to Terrio being brought in, too.
5 Comments
If I’m not mistaken Affleck is also going to tinker alongside Terrio…My hopes for this movie and the WB DCU filmverse has just increased exponentially.
Getting Affleck aboard was a clever move.
Why dont the tap an actual comic book writer?
I presume because they don’t want it to be too “comic-booky.”
I’m not sure what you mean by David Goyer’s hits and misses – I went to his IMDB page and he has had a lot more hits than flops. The man is no Joss Whedon, but aside from a few gigantic turds like Ghost Rider and some of his early work, he’s not that bad of a writer.
Screen writing is a very exacting “science” – they actually have a set style and form that screen writers are forced to use, dictating margins, spacing, indents, and the content of the script. If you don’t slavishly follow the rules, your script won’t even get considered. I can’t imagine that very many comic book writers would put up with that kind of horse manure, and this is the reason why so many novelists – even high octane ones like Hemmingway – quickly soured on Hollywood.
Of course, there’s also a very good chance that Frank Miller’s attempts at screenwriting for Robo Cop and Sin City might have soured Hollywood studios on the notion of hiring comic book writers to work on script, too.
I did enjoy Goyer’s work w/ Johns on the JSA comic before he started getting heavily involved with screenplay writing. I would imagine the tweaks they are implementing w/ the new writer is to expand the DC universe further more, hopefully setting up for a Justice League movie as Doctor Dinosaur mentioned. Either way, some modifications to the script here and there probably won’t be such a bad idea.
Side note, I would love to see a Flash script written by Goyer. I would like to see the Flash character being depicted as a legacy character; starting either with Jay Garrick or Barry, then working there way to Wally West. Wally in a Flash movie as of recent will probably never happen, but they could always introduce him through his Aunt Iris West.