The name David S. Goyer carries a lot of weight among fans of superhero films. The director and screenwriter significantly contributed to the resurgence of cape-centric movies. It was with Man of Steel (2013) that Goyer truly left his mark on the DC Universe. Directed by Zack Snyder, this movie aimed to reinvent Superman for a modern audience.
Since the early 1990s, David S. Goyer has written for both film and television. He has therefore had to cope with numerous executive script notes. Goyer has told an account about one of the worst notes he ever got for one of his films from a top studio executive.
The Worst Note David S. Goyer Received From Studio Executives
According to writer David S. Goyer, one of the worst script notes he’s ever got was from Warner Bros. executives while making the DC Extended Universe’s Man of Steel.
In a wide-ranging interview at The Hollywood Reporter, the writer was asked to describe the worst script note he had ever received. He said:
“One note I got was on Man of Steel, where the ending involves Superman utilizing the pod that he arrived in as a child in order to bring down General Zod’s ship. The note we got from the studio said, “You have to change that.” We asked why. They said, “Because if Superman uses that pod and it’s destroyed while saving the city, how is he ever going to get back home to Krypton?” There was just this long pause and we said, “Krypton blew up. You saw 30 minutes of it!”
So, though Goyer’s scripts were always seen in a good way, it was never the same sweet experience for him. Not all of his works have received favorable responses from the producers and studios that employed him.
Also, David S. Goyer Got one of the Best Notes, Came from another Big House
On a lighter note, Goyer talked about how adapting Isaac Asimov’s Foundation for Apple TV+ inspired him to write. Apple TV+ development boss Matt Cherniss shared the note.
Goyer stated:
“I actually received some pretty good notes from [Apple TV development head] Matt Cherniss — and I’m not just saying that because Foundation is a pending project. Early on in the process, I used to talk about how time is a character on the show. And we were twisting ourselves around the axle of trying to figure out, how do we deal with these complicated time jumps and slightly left-of-center story structures? And he just said, ‘F*** it, just lean into it.’ So we broke with traditional story structures in various ways. The structure changes from episode to episode. Most of the time, studio executives say, ‘How do you make it more normal? How do you make it fall in line with what the audience would expect?’ He encouraged me to not do that, which was unusual.”
Goyer is also known for his story work on The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Man of Steel is now available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
