David S. Goyer Biography

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David Samuel Goyer (born December 22, 1965) is an American screenwriter, film director, novelist, and comic book writer.

His screenwriting works includes includes the Blade trilogy, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Dark City and Man of Steel, while he directed four feature films: Zig Zag, Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, and The Unborn.

Goyer also acted as co-writer of video games Call of Duty: Black Ops and its sequel Call of Duty: Black Ops II. He won a Saturn Award for Best Writing for Batman Begins, receiving another nomination for Dark City, and was nominated for four Hugo Awards.

Early life

Goyer and his brother Jeff were born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and were raised by their mother. He is Jewish on his mother's side, and attended Hebrew school. He has stated that in the regular school, "a lot kids beat me up, saying that I killed Christ. I was very consciously different... I grew up with something of a chip on my shoulder." Goyer is an alumnus of Huron High School and the University of Southern California, graduating from the School of Cinema-Television in 1988.

Goyer was a student of screenwriting Nelson Gidding at USC and frequently returned to Gidding's class as a guest speaker. He graduated in 1988 and sold his first screenplay for Death Warrant in 1989. With his first paycheck, he bought a new Isuzu Trooper, which was stolen the very first night he drove it home.

Career

A professed comic book fanatic, Goyer has written or co-written several screenplays based on numerous comic book series, among them Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Batman Begins, The Flash, and Blade.

Goyer wrote a title based around the Justice Society of America for DC Comics titled JSA, which debuted in August 1999. For the first five issues, he collaborated with James Robinson and, until his departure following issue 51, with Geoff Johns, who would take over as solo writer.

Alongside Brannon Braga, Goyer co-created FlashForward, a science fiction TV series that premiered on ABC in Fall 2009. The show was based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer. He stepped in as show runner in October 2009 after the show struggled out of the gate. On Feb. 5, 2010, Goyer announced he would be stepping down as FlashForward showrunner to focus on feature films and directing.

In 2011, Goyer wrote a short story titled "The Incident" in which Superman renounces his U.S. citizenship.

Goyer has recently been working with Legendary Pictures on three of their upcoming projects. He co-wrote the scripts for The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Man of Steel (2013). In addition, he did a one-step 4-week rewrite for Legendary Pictures' Godzilla reboot.

Goyer also recently published his first novel, Heaven's Shadow, the first in a trilogy co-written by Michael Cassutt for Ace/Penguin. The novel received generally positive reviews. Goyer subsequently sold the film rights to Warner Brothers and is currently adapting the first novel for the big screen.

In late October 2011, cable channel Starz and BBC Worldwide has greenlit his new project called Da Vinci's Demons. The project will follow the life of a 25-year old Leonardo da Vinci. "This will be a show about secret histories, genius, madness and all things profane," according to Goyer.

In March 2013, Goyer was reported to have been chosen as writer for a film adaptation of the video game Metal Gear Solid. In June, he was announced to work on both Justice League and a sequel to Man of Steel.

Filmography

Writer

Films

• Death Warrant (1990)
• Demonic Toys (1992)
• The Puppet Masters (1994)
• The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
• Dark City (1998)
• Blade (1998)
• Zig Zag (2002)
• Blade II (2002)
• Blade: Trinity (2004)
• Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys (2004)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• Jumper (2008)
• The Dark Knight (2008) story
• The Unborn (2009)
• Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012) story
• The Dark Knight Rises (2012) story
• Man of Steel (2013)
• The Invisible Man (2013)
• Godzilla (2014)
• Untitled Batman / Superman film (2015)
• Justice League (2017)

Television

• Sleepwalkers episode "Pilot"
• Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998)
• FreakyLinks episode "Subject: Fearsum" (2000)
• Threshold episode "Trees Made of Glass: Part 2" (2005)
• Blade: The Series episodes "Pilot," "Death Goes On," "Descent," "Bloodlines," "The Evil Within," "Delivery," "Sacrifice," "Turn of the Screw," "Angels & Demons," "Hunters," "Monsters," and "Conclave" (2006)
• FlashForward co-wrote episodes "No More Good Days," "White To Play," "137 Sekunden," "A561984," and "The Garden of Forking Paths" (2009-2010)
• Da Vinci's Demons episodes 1, 2, 4, and 8 (2013)

Video games

• Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012)

Novels

• Heaven's Shadow (2011)
• Heaven's War (2012)
• Heaven's Fall (2013)

Director

• Zig Zag (2002)
• Blade: Trinity (2004)
• Threshold episode "Trees Made of Glass: Part 1" (2005)
• The Invisible (2007)
• The Unborn (2009)
• FlashForward pilot "No More Good Days" and episode "White To Black" (2009)

Producer

• Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991)
• Sleepwalkers (1997"1998)
• Mission to Mars (2000)
• Blade II (2002)
• Threshold (2005)
• Blade: The Series (2006)
• Ghost Rider (2007)
• FlashForward (2009)
• Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
• Da Vinci's Demons (2012)