David S. Goyer talks MAN OF STEEL and Sequel

Ain't it Cool.com has posted a little interview with screenwriter David S. Goyer talking about new ways in MAN OF STEEL and 'loose ends' which have been left open for the sequel. Check it out below.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Mr. Beaks: So let's talk about Lois knowing Clark is Superman.

David Goyer: I just thought it was silly. If you're going to make her smart, if she's going to be Superman's love interest, Lois needs to stand on her own as a character; she needs to be really smart and have a lot of gumption, and she can't just be the damsel in distress, or else why is Clark/Kal interested in her? People say that a hero is only as good as his or her villain, but I also think the same is true of his or her love interest. It strained credulity for me that it took Lois ten or twenty years to figure out that Clark was Superman. I call bullshit on it, especially if she's sleeping with him. That was something that we talked about with DC, and said, "Maybe it's time to move on from that." And maybe there are even people in Smallville that know. It's not explicit, but we imply that maybe people in Smallville have put two and two together.

Beaks: The "Welcome to the Planet" line is terrific. Was that always there, or did that come along later?

Goyer: That was in the first draft. I was trying to figure out how to end the movie, and it was one of those heaven-sent things where I realized that there was this incredible double entendre just sitting there. The film was always kind of about the world's introduction to Superman, why Clark chose to put on the costume and say, "Hey, I'm Superman." Also, in a way, the movie is about the world accepting him, and him firmly and fundamentally accepting Earth. And I just thought that was the perfect way to end the movie, to have that play in two different ways.

Beaks: The brutality and shocking finality of Superman snapping Zod's neck. How did that come about?

Goyer: That was something that we had a lot of discussions about, and I know that originally Chris felt... that was not in the first draft. It's something that Zack and I wanted to do, and initially there was a lot of resistance, which I completely understand. One of the things that we've always tried to do with the Batman films and the Superman film is never accept something just because that's the way it's done in the comic books. That was never a good enough reason. It always had to make sense within our own universe or within the rules of our universe. So I understand why the editors at DC would say "Batman doesn't kill" or "Batman doesn't use guns".

One of the the things that I like to do as a writer and director is put my heroes in the most difficult situation as humanly possible. I always say, "What's the worst thing that could possibly happen to our character?" Or the biggest obstacle that you could possibly put in that character's path. If you can come up with it, and then figure out a way for them to subvert that and get around it, then that's an exciting place to be in terms of the writing. We tried to come up with a couple of scenarios like that for Superman as a kind of mental exercise. I think if you can do that, and come up with something that the audience is surprised by but accepts, then I think they're more emotionally engaged. So what happens with Zod... I feel like virtually everyone who's seen the film accepts it, but Superman is not happy about it. He cries. That's also the last link to his people. If you can get the audience to tear up in a Superman film not just out of nostalgia, but because they're actually emotionally invested, then I feel l like you've got them in a way that maybe some other iterations of Superman haven't had them before.

Beaks: Talking with friends post-screening, the geek started to come out, and we were wondering, "What's going to happen to Zod's body? Perhaps Luthor could find a use for that."

Goyer: I can neither confirm nor deny. But I will say that I did intentionally leave some loose ends, not as sequel bait, but just because I thought they were interesting. I don't know if anyone that's viewed the film has picked up on this yet, but when Clark goes into the scout ship, which sort of becomes the Fortress of Solitude, you see four cryogenic sarcophagi for the crew that piloted that ship 18,000 or 20,000 years ago. There's a shot there - and, it's funny, at one point Zack took it out, but I cried "Uncle!", and he put it back in. But you see there are four pods: three of them have skeletons in them, but one is open and there is no skeleton. Zack had missed it the first time he read the script. I pointed it out to him, and he was like, "Okay, that's interesting. That's an interesting loose end."