Man Of Steel Writer Says Film Risks Offending People

There's no doubt that the Richard Donner Superman films helped define Superman to the public at large. Many fans fondly remember those films from their childhood, and they don't want to see anything done to dishonor them. However, at the same time, any attempt to remake those films in the same style would be met with disappointment because copies are rarely anywhere as good as the original. Much of the criticism of Superman Returns was not that it was a bad film, but that it stayed too similar to the original Superman movies. In a new interview with Fast Company about DaVinci's Demons, Man Of Steel Writer David S. Goyer touched on the risks associated with reinventing Superman. David S. Goyer said, "We're very aware. In the case of Superman, many people have possessory feelings about him but then there have been a lot of different iterations. It's no small thing to say you're going to do Superman; but which Superman? Which era are you going to adhere to? Which elements are you going to adhere to?  Da vinci is a little bit different, it's historical but there's a lot of debate about his life. No doubt some people will take issue. And that may be case with Man of Steel. We'll see." Goyer also drew some comparisons between Man Of Steel and Batman Begins. Goyer explained, "We're in the same place we were at with Batman Begins. If you think about Batman Begins, there had been these previous iterations of Batman, the TV show, the Burton films. We were trying to do something that's different we were going against the tide. The public perception of Superman comes largely from the Donner films. Superman's been preserved in amber since something like 37 years ago, and for the general public he hasn't really shifted since. Anytime you do something different, shake up the orthodoxy, you risk offending people. Superman has been reinterpreted many times over the decades and if he is going to remain a vibrant myth he needs to continue to be reinterpreted. Hopefully, that's what we've done and people will embrace it." Goyer's points are well taken. No matter what route a writer goes in reinventing a classic character, there are always going to be some people who take issue. There were people who took issue with Tim Burton's Batman not following the Adam West TV series, and there were people who took issue with Christopher Nolan's Batman departing from Burton's Batman. In fact, if a writer doesn't risk offending some people, then they probably aren't doing their job. While doing something different with Superman is risky, it can also be the most rewarding, because if it's good fans will embrace it just like they did with Nolan's Batman films.