After doing the seemingly impossible and breathing life back into the Batman film franchise after Joel Schumacher had his nipple-loving mitts on it, David Goyer is setting his sights on another failed film franchise to make it cool once again.

It looks like Legendary Pictures has tagged Goyer to help them out of a bind and write the script for their upcoming Godzilla reboot. Here’s the scoop from Deadline.

David Goyer has worked with Thomas Tull’s Legendary Pictures on both Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy and the new Superman reboot Man Of Steel. Now the in-demand writer will pen the screenplay, from a draft written by David Callaham, for Legendary Pictures’ new version of Godzilla. The project will fall under Legendary’s overall agreement with Warner Bros while Toho Company, which own the rights to the oversized reptile, will distribute the film in Japan.

The film is also set to be directed by Monsters director Gareth Edwards, who managed to make an epic monster adventure with a minimum production budget. Let’s hope that Goyer can help us forget Matthew Broderick, Godzilla eggs, and Puff Daddy’s Led Zeppelin cover.

David Goyer has had quite a successful relationship with DC and Warner Bros. dating back to Batman Begins. Now, with his potential to write scripts for the upcoming Superman and Batman projects, Warner has optioned a brand new property from the mind of Goyer, based on his brand new series of science fiction novels.

The first story of the trilogy, titled Heaven’s Shadow, has been optioned by the studio to be made into a large-budget picture, with Goyer staying attached to re-work the script. If all goes according to plan, the film is only the first to be adapted from the series. From Deadline:

The trilogy begins when an object is discovered heading for earth. Initial panic gives way to a competition between governments to be first to intercept what they believe is a breakaway meteor. What the astronauts discover leads to an encounter with alien forces that are a threat to humanity. It is the first book that Goyer has written and last spring, he set it at the Penguin imprint Ace Books to be published in July, 2011. Heaven’s War and Heaven’s Fall will be released in subsequent summers. The studio bought the book series after Goyer pitched it, as Goyer and his co-author are still working on the prose.

No word on how this upcoming project could effect Goyer’s work on his other projects, especially the upcoming third Batman film in the new trilogy. According to film star Michael Caine, the studio and Nolan are planning to shoot as soon as April of next year, which could mean Goyer’s script is already in the can.

Not only that, but DC Entertainment is also tired of leaving the Superman property on the shelf, and plans are already in action to streamline the film for a 2012-2013 release.

Whatever the case may be, you can believe we’ll be keeping a close eye on all things coming out of Goyer’s camp over the next few years, as he should have his work cut out for him.

It shouldn’t come as a surpise that pretty much everyone here at The Flickcast (and most of the civilized geek world) is anxiously waiting for more news on the third Batman film. With The Dark Knight pretty much being the ultimate treatment of the character and his world, any info about the third installment of the franchise, so artfully executed by Christpher Nolan and his team, is a very exciting development indeed.

Well, hold onto your seats because news of  the third Batman film is just what we’ve got right now. But wait, there’s more. We’ve also got some news on the Superman reboot too. How’s that for awesome?

Speaking to Empire Magazine during an interview for his upcoming film Inception (which also loooks awesome, btw) Nolan gave some much needed updates on the Batman 3 production as well as some new info about his level of involvement with Superman.

According to Nolan, he still hasn’t officially signed on to direct new Batman movie. “No I haven’t. There is a point where you’re just being precious about it and people get annoyed, but the God’s honest truth is I work on one movie at a time. I’m only capable of doing that, so my head will continue to be firmly in [‘Inception’] for another few months.”

There are some things, though, that Nolan can confirm. “My brother is working on the screenplay. We came up with a story that we are very excited about. We particularly like where we are taking the characters and what the ending is… There are things for me to be very excited about in addressing the characters again. But ultimately it always comes down to the script, and can we make a great film from this?

That’s something I will firmly be turning my attention to figuring out fairly soon.” It will be, he said, “the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.”

Empire also asked whether the villain could be a returning (and recast) Joker. “No,” said Nolan resisting to elaborate, “I just don’t feel comfortable about it.”

Even though they’ve tried as long as possible to avoid releasing anything like “official” word on the film and haven’t really even confirmed one is coming at all, it seem Warner Bros. has finally decided to let the cat, er bat, out of the bag and give some information most everyone assumed was inevitable. The studio has set July 20, 2012 as the release date for the third Christopher Nolan-directed Batman movie, the sequel to 2008’s The Dark Knight.

According to the report, the studio is in the very early stages of developing the film and director Nolan is still in post-production on the soon-to-be-released Inception, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio. However, Nolan is reportedly working on the story with scribe David Goyer. At the moment the film has no title and no start date but you would have to think it would start filming sometime late this year in order make it’s release date.

Summer 2012 looks to be a busy one with Batman 3 now having a release date. Other films scheduled to come out around that time include The Avengers on May 4, Battleship on May 25, the next Star Trek on June 29 and the reboot of Spider-Man on July 3. Should be an interesting few months indeed.

It goes without saying we’ll be watching all the developments of Batman 3 very closely and will bring you the news as soon as we get it.

When writer David Goyer left his post as showrunner for TV’s Flashforward there were rumblings about what he was up to. At the time the most obvious answer  was that he was helping director Christopher Nolan with the third Batman script. At the same time, DC had confirmed Nolan would be helping to get the Superman franchise back on track.

Well, today all the pieces are falling into place as we learn Goyer has been hired to write the next Superman movie.  A source confirmed the news to Latino Review and gave a little indication of what we can expect:

“I can tell you that Goyer’s story involves Luthor and Brainiac.  It is NOT an origin and assumes audiences already know about Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Perry.  I know the Daily Planet is struggling due to the internet.  And I know it sets up a huge Kryptonian mythology.”

Some other points of interest are that Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh will probably not return. Also, the film may be called The Man of Steel instead of Superman: The Man of Steel.  Contrary to prior rumors Mark Millar will not be involved  from the sounds of it.

Marvel has a long list of comic-to-film projects that didn’t pan out so well. Ghost Rider is one of them. That may be the most diplomatic way I’ve ever put that. Ordinarily anything having to do with Ghost Rider has elicited a rage in me that leaves me angry. . . Hulk angry. So why am I so calm this time?

Well, as we’ve already covered here at The Flickcast, Ghost Rider is getting a sequel which could have been as craptastic as the first film. However, the script for the new movie is from one of my favorite writers David Goyer (Batman Begins, FlashForward).  Recently, MTV caught up with Goyer and asked him about the Ghost Rider sequel:

“It’s not exactly a reboot,” said Goyer, “I hate to say it’s more realistic, because he’s got a flaming skull for a head, but it’s a bit more stripped down and darker. It’s definitely changing tone. What ‘Casino Royale’ was to the Bond movies, hopefully this will be to ‘Ghost Rider.'”

I’m not sure Casino Royale is the best comparison to make, but I understand what Goyer is trying to say. Dropping all the baggage like Mephistopheles and his minions and focus on Johnny Blaze and his curse.  That’s definitely the way to go as there was way to much attention paid to peripheral nonsense in the first movie.

There was one other thing I found interesting about the interview.  Goyer states Ghost Rider 2 isn’t really a reboot but then says: “You don’t have to have seen the first film. It doesn’t contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we’re pretending that our audience hasn’t seen the first film.”

This week we meet Dominic Monaghan’s character of Simon, but we do not get anything more than a  tease on how he and Simco killed 20 million people in their experiment with the blackout. So that mystery is extended, but at least we know who is responsible and how they got it. Also, Mark (Joseph Fiennes) meets the man who will replace him in the bed of his wife (Sonya Walger), and she finds out that Mark was drinking in his flash forward. All this and more in another innocuous episode of Flash Forward.

We open on a train ride coming from somewhere and going to Los Angeles. Here we have Monaghan’s character seducing a woman by explaining quantum physics, achieving something in three minutes the Big Bang Theory has been trying to do for however long that show has been on.

Following the last episode, Agent Janis Hawk survives her gun fight, but in having been wounded in her pelvis will never be allowed to bear children. So, this raises the question of how she will be pregnant come April 29, 2010.

The over coming thread throughout this episode is now that we know the future: will it actually happen? It seems like this episode seems to suggest no, not exactly. With Janis now not being able to give birth, and Simco’s super weird kid trailing the Benford’s super weird kid to their house, causing Simco and Olivia to finally realize their flash forwards was kind of ridiculous but creepy-cool. Creepy cool in a way that The Shining is creepy cool and those two kids are straight up creepy, with their chant over that doll of the Benford’s kid.

Add another change of TV show leadership to the list that already includes CBS’s The Good Wife as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Marc Guggenheim is stepping down as showrunner on ABC’s first season drama FlashForward. Even though the show recently got an order for 9 more episodes (what is known as the “back nine” in TV production) it will be David Goyer taking the helm from here on out.

According to the trade, reasons for Guggenheim’s departure are not clear. But what is clear is that the show, in spite of good ratings for its debut, has since slipped. For adults 18-49 the show had a 4.1 rating at its premiere and dropped to a 3.1 for its fourth episode. Not the way they hope numbers will go.

Initially, Guggenheim had been brought in after the pilot to replace FlashForward‘s co-creator Brannon Braga, who also co-created and ran Star Trek: Enterprise and Threshold, due to his departure to run the latest season of Fox’s 24. Goyer had worked alongside Guggenheim since that point to learn the ropes and will now step up for the next nine episodes.

To be honest, its not that unusual for showrunners to leave shows and go on to something else. It happens. Still, you have to wonder if the ratings had remained consistent, would we even be talking about this at all? My guess, probably not.

FlashForward airs Thursday at 8/7C on ABC.

John Cho has become quite the name in the world of geeks and fanboys over the past few years. From helping to rejuvenate the career of Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle to coining the term M.I.L.F. for millions of teens to sweat over.

Let’s also not forget that he’s the pilot of one of the most important fictional ships in American Sci-Fi history, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Cho has now found a new home on ABC’s FlashForward, the newest action mystery series done in the same vain as LOST. In the show, everybody in the world blacks out and gets flashes of images that happen 6 months in the future. The mystery only unravels from there, as more gets revealed week after week.

We recently got a chance to speak with John about his role on FlashForward, as well as a future for Harold and Kumar and even what genre he may like to take on next. Check out the interview after the jump. Be sure to catch FlashForward on ABC every Thursday at 8pm/7pm Central.

Being the geek that I am I’ve been keeping a close eye on the slowly developing Green Arrow film, Super Max. Written by David Goyer (Blade, The Dark Knight), the film is not your average comic book fair. Instead of following the typical origin tale, Super Max plans to take super hero Green Arrow and drop him in a “super max” prison full of villains (many of which he probably put there). Wrongfully convicted, Green Arrow would be forced to work alongside his enemies to escape while trying not to unleash the rest of the villains in the process.  Think Prison Break meets Justice League.

Well, you can imagine my dismay when I read today that Columbia Pictures picked up the rights to spec horror script, Supermax by writers Mitch Rouse and Christopher Nelson. Yes, you read that right, two films with the same name (minus the space of course). Worse yet, the similarities don’t end with the name:

“The script [Supermax], a horror/action combo about a supernatural prison, ‘centers on a skilled guard who is re-assigned to Supermax. After a riot erupts, he must join forces with one of the prison’s monstrous inmates in order to survive and fight his way out.'”