Writer Goyer Says Christopher Nolan Told Him ‘Not to Work on the Affleck Batman’ Because ‘It’s Confusing. We Did One and Just Stick With That’
David S. Goyer celebrated the 20th anniversary of Batman Begins on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, where he revealed Warner Bros. was not pleased with his decision to wait an hour into the movie’s runtime to feature Batman in-costume.
Goyer came up with the story for Batman Begins and co-wrote the script with Nolan before cracking the stories for sequels “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”
“They were not happy about that,” Goyer said about only featuring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne for the first hour of the movie. “No disrespect to the actors who played Bruce Wayne prior to this, and as moviegoers we were always twiddling our thumbs waiting for the character to get into costume and for the movie to begin. But why is that?”
To help ease the studio’s concerns over hiding Batman for a large chunk of “Batman Begins,” Goyer put together a presentation for executives in which he took four other superhero movies, including Richard Donner’s “Superman,” and “we clocked the minute into the film the character had put on the costume… We weren’t that much farther than them!”
Goyer and Nolan continued their superhero collaboration after the “Dark Knight” trilogy wrapped by working with Zack Snyder on “Man of Steel,” which Goyer wrote from a story he devised with Nolan. It was the start of Snyder’s DC Universe, which would continue with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” But, according to Goyer, Nolan told him to avoid sticking with DC and launching another Batman with Ben Affleck.
Goyer clearly did not heed Nolan’s advice, and he may not again when it comes to Blade. Goyer wrote all three movies in Wesley Snipes’ original “Blade” trilogy and even stepped in to direct 2004’s “Blade: Trinity.” Goyer told Screen Rant earlier this year he’d be interested in coming on board to help Marvel’s long-delayed “Blade” reboot with Mahershala Ali.
Watch Goyer’s full interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast in the video below.
