Screenwriter David Goyer has quite a career. He first broke through with his scripts for Dark City and the big screen adaptation of Blade.
Then he helped resurrect the Dark Knight with Batman Begins. (He also has story credit on The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.) Recently, Goyer penned the script for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, as well as the upcoming Superman reboot, Man of Steel. (Goyer also did some script work on the Godzilla reboot as well, which is due in 2014).
In addition to all this action, Goyer has a new show on Starz, Da Vinci’s Demons, which debuts on April 12. As Goyer points out, there’s definite similarities between the great artist and Batman. He told the L.A. Times that Demons has “a graphic novel approach. It’s photographically very different than any other historical show.”
As for the Batman comparisons, Goyer told The Wrap, “There are some parallels to Batman. He had big father issues – missing parent. Both had these kind of formative, horrific incidents where they were trapped in caves…” An even more interesting parallel: Bob Kane apparently based Batman’s cape on Da Vinci’s glider. “So the two figures have always been kind of inextricably linked.”
Goyer also said that Demons is the “Batman Begins of historical drama,” as well as “one-third Indiana Jones, one-third Sherlock, one-third Tony Stark. There’s a lot of Lost in there, it’s got a heavy mythology….He’s kind of superhero-y. People have said that aside from Christ he’s the most recognized historical figure in the world. So in that regard my approach was not dissimilar to adapting Batman or Superman.”
Sounds good Goyer, we’re sold. If this is how he pitched Da Vinci’s demons to the Starz network, it’s a very interesting way to re-approach history. And if the show’s ultra modern approach can turn young, impressionable people on to Da Vinci’s genius, even better.
