David Goyer's Script Discussion

[Mr Nick]

Ta, Antariksh.

He's a funny guy. It's a shame he won't be in Transformers. I thought he might be doing Optimus Prime's voice.

I really hope Daredevil 2 does happen. I thought it was a very solid and faithful movie (the Director's Cut, that is). Crucify me if you want, but I thought Ben Affleck was excellent. He really made me feel for the character and the bad place he went through. Duncan himself was so cool and scarily huge, just like his character! All that negativity about his casting as Kingpin seems silly now. I can't imagine anyone else playing him.

On a side note, I find it quite amusing (and romantic) that Daredevil and Elektra are married! Aww, I do love a happy ending.

 

[FlameHead]

You know Nick, I had no problems with Ben either. I don't have a whole lot of DD or Matt knowledge but, he seemed fine in the role... and again, I'm talking about the DC version. You know, the one that actually tells a story about Matt and you actually get a chance to know what he's about outside of the costume.

 

[Retroman]

Check out this old interview with Goyer from 2001. Just to show how long GR took to get to the big screen.

Q8. It's well-known that the Blade II and Ghost Rider projects are moving along. What can we as fans expect from this pair of films?

A8. Blade II is coming along excellently. The film is beautiful and should easily exceed the first movie in terms of scope, style, and substance. I'm having a blast here in Prague. We're about half-finished and I think fans are going to soil their undies. Swear to god. Ghost Rider is moving into pre-production. We have a script and are scouting locations, doing visual effects tests. We're in the midst of negotiating a deal with a certain star and if things go well, there should be an announcement in the next few weeks. We'll probably have a September start on that movie. Blade II will probably come out next March.

Source: http://www.shotgunreviews.com/bigq/bigq052901_2.html

 

[NDX]

I remember reading in the letter pages of the comic that they were discussing the GR movie back in 1996. I also remember reading articles back 1999/2000 where Cage said he wanted to do Ghost Rider and Iron Man films.

Damn, I've been waiting a long time for this film.

 

[BIGGUN]

I remember reading in the letter pages of the comic that they were discussing the GR movie back in 1996. I also remember reading articles back 1999/2000 where Cage said he wanted to do Ghost Rider and Iron Man films.

Damn, I've been waiting a long time for this film.

it was even earlier than that i think...maybe even in 91 or 92 they were talking about a GR film in the letters section. then again they talked about a movie all the way back in 1982 or 83 in the letters section of the 70's/80's GR series.

someone mentioned that the 80s movie The Wraith was supposed to be the pilot for a GR tv series. from what i remember Blaze would have worn a helmet and didnt change into a flaming skeleton...instead his skin turned pasty white.
...so glad that didnt happen..

 

[zer00]

heh I remember that

 

[NDX]

it was even earlier than that i think...maybe even in 91 or 92 they were talking about a GR film in the letters section. then again they talked about a movie all the way back in 1982 or 83 in the letters section of the 70's/80's GR series.

someone mentioned that the 80s movie The Wraith was supposed to be the pilot for a GR tv series. from what i remember Blaze would have worn a helmet and didnt change into a flaming skeleton...instead his skin turned pasty white.
...so glad that didnt happen..

But I believe 1996 is when Marvel started to sell off the movie rights to their movies to studios like Sony, Fox and Universal, was it not?

And as good a movie The Wraith was, glad that was not the Ghost Rider series.

 

[FlameHead]

it was even earlier than that i think...maybe even in 91 or 92 they were talking about a GR film in the letters section. then again they talked about a movie all the way back in 1982 or 83 in the letters section of the 70's/80's GR series.

someone mentioned that the 80s movie The Wraith was supposed to be the pilot for a GR tv series. from what i remember Blaze would have worn a helmet and didnt change into a flaming skeleton...instead his skin turned pasty white.
...so glad that didnt happen..

I remember us talking about that movie a while ago but, I can't really remember us talking about it being a pilot for a GR Tv series. That's pretty awesome... though, I'm with you; I'm very happy it didn't work out.

By the way, that thread is here: http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161701

 

[BIGGUN]

But I believe 1996 is when Marvel started to sell off the movie rights to their movies to studios like Sony, Fox and Universal, was it not?

And as good a movie The Wraith was, glad that was not the Ghost Rider series.

well actually GR was licensed to Savoy Pictures back in 1992/1993. i found out from the man himself Avi Arad. he even told me they had a mock up movie poster already made... think they had the rights for awhile. Goyer wrote a script around 95/96 and those early cgi test shots were about the same time

 

[BIGGUN]

I remember us talking about that movie a while ago but, I can't really remember us talking about it being a pilot for a GR Tv series. That's pretty awesome... though, I'm with you; I'm very happy it didn't work out.

By the way, that thread is here: http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161701

ahhh..thanks for finding that FH. forgot they were even going to have painted flames on the helmet..lol! how lame.....pasty face bike rider w/ painted flames on the helmet. yeah...sounds like a winner to me!

 

[FlameHead]

God, that would have been horrible and I'm extreamly happy this wasn't what we got as a Ghost Rider adaptation.... though, I do remember really liking that movie back in the day. I remember being surprised that we chatting about it that time because it was a childhood fave of mine that I completly forgot about.

 

[Kane]

Wow, I really apologize for bringing this tread back up. I have been having problems using the search function lately, and I just managed to find this thread via Google. But, it does relate to what I was hoping to find...

Anyways, I just thought I'd ask the obvious:

Is it still possible that I could read this draft of the script? I have always been really interested in reading it, but I missed my chance when it appeared online and I wasn't aware of it. Is it still prohibited from being online? I've searched e-Bay for it, but it appears it isn't there anymore. I've been really desperate lately to track this down. Yet, I'm quite aware that I may never get a chance to read it.

Again, I apologize for bringing up an OLD thread for a question like this.

 

[batman strikes]

Yeah man I know what you me, I to would love to read this script. If anybody they should send pm's only to the people who want it.

 

[Bishop2]

It's a very interesting script, but ultimately quite bad. Quite.

There's at least one idea in it that obviously was carried over to the MSJ film, though...

Spoiler

MSJ has mentioned a scene where Blaze is led into jail and is terrified, not because of the people inside but because of what he knows he might do to them. This exact concept is explored in Goyer's script.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

I thought Goyer's script was marvelous. I loved how he described Ghost Rider's powers. Theres a scene where hes in stand off with his bike with 2 guys staring him down, when one guys pulls a gun, GR goes 0-60 in a heartbeat, grabs a guy by his head, burns him to a crisp while he's still driving.

And ofcourse my favorite scene that it described was the scene where he manipulates the fire coming out of an engine to not allow it to start. Afterwards his hands are so hot, he literally melts the door as he tears it off its hinges. He ends up ripping the truck in half and giving the penance stare to one of the drivers who ends up being burned in the process.

The way Goyer described the Ghost Rider was a very horrific and tortured soul, a true curse. I hope that MSJ shows that this is not some batman alter-ego, but a source of endless misery to Johnny Blaze, no matter how terrifying powerful the entity of Zarathos (GR) is.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Alright guys for your viewing pleasure, I present to you the few pages of the script that I managed to retain:

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5104/script02wa2.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4569/script03up9.jpg

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/4325/script04dl5.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/608/script05hl2.jpg

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/6279/script06ca3.jpg

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5703/script07vs0.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=script08ob0.jpg

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5007/script09nw1.jpg

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4589/script10ou4.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9839/script11zh9.jpg

 

[Bishop2]

Now, it's only occasional that Ghost Rider kills wantonly in the comics, but it does happen with some writers. So I can swallow that in a Ghost Rider film - that element of Goyer's script was okay with me.

But there were so many unanswered questions - it's got like three cliffhangers when it's all over, because there's so much nonsense. A basis in mysticism and heavenly lore does not grant you the right to have so little internal logic. The "villian" is painfully lame - a thug who's abusive against women who gets granted the power to decay things. Whee. The portrayal of the devil himself is pretty hilarious, though. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but there it is.

The ultimate kicker for me though is that Ghost Rider will go after ANYONE and EVERYONE who even entertains a single sinful thought, complete with murder on his mind. The female lead at one point hopes to see suffering come to the men who have tormented her and her child for years on end - the men who have been attempting to beat them, kill them, rape her, whatever. Ergo, her desire to see them pay for this is hardly an unreasonable desire. But because of this one "sinful" desire, the Rider goes after her and does its damnedest to kill her! Holy crap! By this logic, the Rider should be killing HUMANITY AS A WHOLE. I really hated this particular twist on the character, which absolutely lost touch with its core.

To say nothing of the whole "fire gives the rider his power" thing. I mean, at one point in the script, when the Rider is weakening, the only way to get a new lease on life is to eat burning cinders - which renews him in a fashion similar to how Blade gets revived by drinking blood in his first and second movies.

Sigh. It was kind of a mess.

 

[Kane]

Hate to bring back an old thread, but I was just wondering if anybody has David Goyer's draft of Ghost Rider? PM if you have it, and we can discuss a deal. I really want to read this, and see how it is. Thanks!

 

[Cain Estrell]

Man o man, just looking at how masterfully-done Goyer’s style with words are, really leads me to realize that - I’ve still got A LOT to go through in this business !

And I have to admit, the Goyer script truly outshines MSJ’s by a milestone in terms of the creativity department alone! But just like Bishop2 said:

The ultimate kicker for me though is that Ghost Rider will go after ANYONE and EVERYONE who even entertains a single sinful thought, complete with murder on his mind. The female lead at one point hopes to see suffering come to the men who have tormented her and her child for years on end - the men who have been attempting to beat them, kill them, rape her, whatever. Ergo, her desire to see them pay for this is hardly an unreasonable desire. But because of this one "sinful" desire, the Rider goes after her and does its damnedest to kill her! Holy crap! By this logic, the Rider should be killing HUMANITY AS A WHOLE. I really hated this particular twist on the character, which absolutely lost touch with its core.

*Sigh!* Hardly any spark of humanity left, eh ? Seriously, even Zarathos was better than this.......

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

There were lots of parts in that script I heard were just way off topic of what Ghost Rider was all about..for one that the Spirit of Vengeance 'soul hops' and goes from soul to soul...then the whole thing with Psychics and what not.

What I really loved about Goyer's script was the action. Ghost Rider was truly a curse to it's host and he was the last thing you'd ever want to see in your life.

My favorite part is how he describes the audience should have reacted when seeing Ghost Rider - a Great White Shark that has you on his sights...and when he turns away...the whole world sighs in relief!

I loved the idea of how he ripped through the van, how he torched those baddies, and the penance stare effecting both victim and wielder.

 

[Cain Estrell]

What I really loved about Goyer's script was the action. Ghost Rider was truly a curse to it's host and he was the last thing you'd ever want to see in your life.

My favorite part is how he describes the audience should have reacted when seeing Ghost Rider - a Great White Shark that has you on his sights...and when he turns away...the whole world sighs in relief!

I loved the idea of how he ripped through the van, how he torched those baddies, and the penance stare effecting both victim and wielder.

Yeah, the action and all that definitely sounds GR material, doesn't it?

But still, the fact that Goyer completely erased any spark of sympathy in the character just throws me off this script!

I never would've taken my family to watch THIS film! It's just plain too cruel & inhuman in nature....

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

So in other words the movie would have still been ****ty if Goyer's script was used?

 

[Cain Estrell]

So in other words the movie would have still been ****ty if Goyer's script was used?

To put it bluntly.....yeah.

Heck, if I had to pick between Johnson's cheesy work or THIS barbaric nonsense, I'd rather choose the former...

Plus, at least MSJ's film managed to attract some new, younger fans into buying the comic. THIS script, in my opinion, would've only led people to stay away from it, further!

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

To put it bluntly.....yeah.

Heck, if I had to pick between Johnson's cheesy work or THIS barbaric nonsense, I'd rather choose the former...

Plus, at least MSJ's film managed to attract some new, younger fans into buying the comic. THIS script, in my opinion, would've only led people to stay away from it, further!

Agreed, i'm glad they didnt use Goyer's script, from what i have heard, both Johnny Blaze AND the Ghost Rider were completely unsympathetic or relatable, which both were in MSJ's version IMO.

Had Goyer's version been used, i think there would have been even more unhappy people than there are now, it just isnt the GR i know and love IMO, at least PARTS of MSJ's effort was.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

MSJ just needs to stay away from writing the script. He needs to just stick with the directing and act as sort of a consultant with the hired writer to keep things in line with the comics but other than that keep him away from the script. This is why despite being extremely disappointed with Ghost Rider I am looking forward to MSJ possibly taking on Preacher. The story is already there for him to adapt hard for him to screw up.