David S. Goyer

Born in Ann Arbor, a city in Michigan, in 1965, David Samuel Goyer comes from a Jewish family, and in fact as a child he regularly attended Hebrew Sunday school. His mother was in charge of raising him and his brother Jeff alone. From his childhood he remembers that the other boys used to tease him for being Jewish. “That made me feel different,” he said.

He studied Cinematography at the University of Southern California. In the classroom, he became one of the favorite disciples of Nelson Gidding, a veteran screenwriter of titles such as The Andromeda Strain or The Haunted House , who until his death demanded that Goyer regularly attend his classes to give talks to the new generations of students. .

Right after graduating, David S. Goyer sold the script for Freedom to Die , which was made into a film with Jean-Claude Van Damme as the lead. He remembers that with the money he earned for this first job, he bought a utility vehicle for cash, but he had such bad luck that it was stolen the first night.

The film with which he debuted did so well at the box office that Goyer was pigeonholed in the B series for some time. In fact, right after they recruited him for Kickboxer II , sequel to another of Van Damme’s great video store hits, which this time didn’t even appear, giving the lead to his character’s brother, played by Sasha Mitchell .

After a season stuck in direct-to-video releases, with titles like Arcade , Demonic Toys and Dollman vs. Demonic Toys writes his first film starring a comic book hero, The Raven: City of Angels , a new installment of the character created by James O’Barr, where Vincent Perez inherited the character made popular by the late Brandon Lee . By pure chance, it turns out that right after the director of the original film, The Raven (1994) , Alex Proyas , brings to the screen his inspired script for Dark City , an original science fiction show with elements of film noir that became a cult film.

The publisher Marvel is delighted with the work of David S. Goyer for the telefilm Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD , where none other than the protagonist of The fantastic car , David Hasselhoff , embodies one of the most emblematic characters of the comic book factory . As a consequence, he is hired to cover the adventures of another, Blade , a vampire hunter played by Wesley Snipes in the film directed by Stephen Norrington . When he wrote it, Goyer was possibly unaware of the great influence that this title would have on modern cinema.

Blade became in 1998 the first blockbuster based on a Marvel character. He unleashed a veritable wave of adaptations of emblematic creations of the house such as X-Men , in 2000, Spider-Man , in 2002, Hulk and Daredevil in 2003, etc. The flood continues today. Goyer was in charge of the sequels to the vampire slayer, Blade II , directed by Guillermo del Toro, and the unstoppable Blade: Trinity , which he also directed. And it is that Goyer has shown his skills as a screenwriter, but so far it has also been clear that he is a lousy director, as can also be seen in the unspeakable horror film The Seed of Eviland in the failed supernatural thriller What is not seen (Invisible) .

Warner, owner of the DC publisher, Marvel’s competition, does not hesitate to sign Goyer with the aim of recovering the pull of this publisher’s characters, who traditionally were the only ones who succeeded on the big screen. Co-writes the script for Batman Begins hand-in-hand with director Christopher Nolan, reinvention of the myth of the bat man with numerous points of interest. “Working with Chris was, without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life,” recalls the writer. “But it’s also quite difficult as Chris is a very exhausting boss. He pushes you to the limit. He also works harder than any other director I know and has an incredible work ethic. I’ve learned a lot from him. Definitely , I think it helped me grow as a writer. I would love to work with him again. I would work on a phone book adaptation if he asked me to. He instills a lot of loyalty in the people he works with.”

They are joined by Jonathan Nolan , Christopher’s brother, in the well-rounded The Dark Knight , almost without a doubt the best the superhero subgenre has produced. The trio of aces closes the trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises , a worthy conclusion. “Jonathan was also an excellent partner. But it’s funny that being brothers, the Nolans are so different. Jonathan is more American, he has a Yankee accent, but Chris is more British, and he speaks like an Englishman, because he was older when they moved to America “.

As Superman Returns did not reach the desired collection figures, Warner thinks of reinventing the superhero par excellence, bringing it closer to the parameters of the Batman. They rightly put Christopher Nolan in the lead as producer, who co-writes the plot of Man of Steel with David S. Goyer, who ends up authoring the final script. Zack Snyder ( 300 ) is in charge of the realization. It has been announced that Goyer will also write the sequel and adaptation of Justice League., a group that includes Batman, Superman and Flash. He wrote DC comics for DC publications, and also had great success with the comic “The Incident,” in which Superman renounces his US citizenship.

The screenwriter has had time to return to Marvel, as one of the co-writers of the disappointing Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance , starring Nicolas Cage. He also adapted Jumper , which comes from a Steven Gould novel beholden to superhero comics.

On television, David S. Goyer was one of the creators of FlashForward – he also served as executive producer, writer and director of some episodes. He mixed science fiction and intrigue, in an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Lost . But although it started off strong, this production starring Joseph Fiennes soon fizzled out and never got a second season. Subsequently, he has created another series, Da Vinci’s Demons , starring Tom Riley, who follows in the footsteps of a very young Leonardo, in 15th century Florence. Goyer is also behind the script for the new Godzilla remake , directed by Gareth Edwards , withAaron Taylor-Johnson and Bryan Cranston leading the cast, which will be released in 2014.

David S. Goyer is married to Marina Black , a granddaughter of legendary child actress Shirley Temple , who is also an actress. The most remembered role of him is the Parisian classmate of the young Claire in Six Feet Under . The Goyer-Blank couple have two children. He loves to see the look on his face when he assures them that he works with Batman and Superman. “I went to visit the set with my kids and timed it to arrive just as Henry Cavill was going to be in the suit. We turned up and the 6-year-old was like, ‘Wow, you do work with Superman.’ That gave me a lot of credibility,” Goyer comments.