Caffeinated Clint
A deluxe hardcover edition of the “Superman : Secret Origins” book features a foreword by screenwriter David Goyer. Now normally that wouldn’t be worthy of a news article – a tweet, yes, an article, no – because famous faces regularly contribute words to a book’s first few pages, but considering Goyer’s writing the new “Superman” movie it’s worth a mention. Goyer says in his introduction that he’s especially taken with the subplot in the story that has Clark Kent wrestling with his Superman alter-ego.
Here’s Goyer’s foreword (thanks to ComicBookMovie). Might this predict what we can expect to see in 2012’s “Man of Steel”?
“There is a heart breaking moment halfway through the first chapter in which young Clark is told the truth about his heritage. He races out into the night, sobbing, stumbling through the cornfields. Eventually, his foster father, Jonathan, finds him.
‘I don’t want to be someone else,’ says Clark. ‘I don’t want to be different. I want to be Clark Kent.’
‘I want to be your son’
“Right there in that moment, Geoff [Johns] contextualized Superman in a way that I’m not sure has ever really been done before. I had an ‘aha’ experience when I read that. For the first time I was able to grasp how lonely Clark must have been when he was growing up. And what a sacrifice Clark must continually make by being Superman.
“As I write this, I am midway through my first draft of a new Superman screenplay. It’s a task that has stymied many talented fimmakers in the years since Donner’s film. And for all I know, it will end up stymying me as well.
“But I’ve got one advantage that the screenwriters who came before me didn’t have – and that’s access to all the wonderful Superman stories written by Geoff Johns – first and foremost being the SECRET ORIGIN issues reprinted in the very volume you are now holding.”
Considering it’s already been hinted at that the plot of the new film revolves around Clark’s reluctance to become Superman, it’s pretty clear Goyer’s indeed borrowed from “Secret Origins”. We don’t know how much of the yarn will be transferred into Zack Snyder’s movie, but sounds like we can expect a somewhat despondent, confused Clark Kent.
