It’s hard to know what to expect out of writer/director David Goyer. On the one hand, he’s written all three of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, as well as the upcoming Man of Steel being helmed by Zack Snyder. The Batman films are undeniably amazing, but the rest of Goyer’s resume is full of some straight up garbage. His very short directorial resume includes the unbelievably awful The Invisible as well as Blade: Trinity, undoubtedly the worst in that series.
We know he’s capable of greatness, but we can’t be sure we’ll get it on his next project The Invisible Man, which according to the L.A. Times is still very much alive and in-development, even though the last we heard of it was back in 2008. Goyer will be reviving the H.G. Wells story whose first adaptation in 1933 resides firmly among Universals horror classics like Dracula, The Mummy, and The Wolfman. When asked to describe the direction he’ll be taking the film, Goyer had this to say:
It’s period but it’s a reinvention of the character in the sort of way that Stephen Sommers exploded The Mummy into a much bigger kind of mythology. That’s kind of what we’ve done with The Invisible Man.
The key element in actually getting the project made, according to Goyer, is finding the right person to star-- "Now we’re going through the casting process. if they get the right lead, they’ll make it." Prepare yourself now for constant casting rumors about which actor might be willing to fill the invisible shoes once occupied by Claude Rains.
Sure The Mummy and its first sequel were hugely successful; unfortunately other films that reach into the Universal vault for inspiration haven’t managed to reach goodness let alone find greatness. The Wolf Man failed to make back its $150 million budget and was awful as well, and while the 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula managed to make money, Dracula 2000 and all subsequent Dracula spinoffs were quickly forgotten by film goers.
Goyer has got an uphill battle to climb and I think horror fans know it. The Invisible Man is beloved by many sci-fi fans both as a book and a film, and Goyer will have to be careful he doesn’t stray too far from the source material lest he alienate those crazy H.G. Wells worshippers. We could easily wind up with another Hollow Man, and no one wants that.
