Man of Steel Writer Says It Was Crazy How WB and DC Tried to Build Their Own MCU,

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In a career-spanning interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, “Man of Steel” writer David S. Goyer agreed with host Joshua Horowitz that Warner Bros. should’ve developed a standalone Superman sequel with Henry Cavill instead of attempting to mount a cinematic universe with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The studio did so in order to compete with Marvel.

“I know the pressure we were getting from Warner Bros., which was, ‘We need our MCU! We need our MCU!’ And I was like let’s not run before we walk,” Goyer said. “The other thing that was difficult at the time was there was this revolving door of executives at Warner Bros. and DC. Every 18 months someone new would come in. We were just getting whiplash. Every new person was like, ‘We’re going to go bigger!'”

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“I remember at one point the person running Warner Bros. at the time had this release that pitched the next 20 movies over the next 10 years. But none of them had been written yet!” Goyer continued in amazement. “It was crazy how much architecture was being built on air… This is not how you build a house.”

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Goyer worked closely with Christopher Nolan on the “Dark Knight” trilogy and the two conceived of a Superman movie that would become Zack Snyder’s 2013 tentpole “Man of Steel.” Goyer wrote the film. But Cavill never got the chance to lead another standalone Superman movie, as the remainder of his time in the crimson cape was spent in universe-building tentpoles such as “Batman v Superman” and “Justice League.”

Prior to getting Batman and Superman movies off the ground, Goyer wrote all three “Blade” movies starring Wesley Snipes. He even directed the third film, “Blade: Trinity.” He confirmed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he originally worked with David Fincher on bringing a “Blade” project to life.

“I developed a draft with Fincher before he had done ‘Se7en,'” Goyer said. “I think he had done ‘Alien 3’ and maybe he was developing ‘Se7en.’ I developed a draft with him. I remember going to our producers office… There was this giant conference table. Fincher laid out 40 to 50 books of photography and art with post-it notes inside them. He said, ‘This is the movie.'”

“[Fincher] took us on a two-hour tour around the table of the aesthetics of this scene, that character,” Goyer continued. “It was such a fully fleshed out visual pitch… I had never seen something like that before. A lot of that thinking infused my further revisions.”

Stephen Norrington ended up directing “Blade” and Fincher moved on to “Se7en” when the project hit roadblocks in development. Watch Goyer’s full interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast in the video below.

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