Many CBM fans revile screenwriter
Akiva Goldsman for what is often considered one of the worst comic book movies of all time: the
Joel Schumacher-directed
Batman & Robin. While he doesn't come out and apologize for the film, Goldsman said that he is aware of how fans feel about it and where it all went wrong:
"What got lost in Batman & Robin is the emotions aren't real. The worst thing to do with a serious comic book is to make it a cartoon. I'm still answering for that movie with some people."
Following
Batman & Robin, Goldsman's screenwriting career was on the rocks until his script for
A Beautiful Mind earned him an Academy Award. Having a little gold icon on your desk is apparently enough to make even tight-fisted producers forget "bat nipples," because Goldman went on to write the scripts for
The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, I Am Legend and
I, Robot.
And, Goldsman has not sworn off comic book adaptations or superheroes. He is currently producing and/or writing the screenplay for four DC Comics adaptations:
Jonah Hex,
The Losers,
Lobo and
Swamp Thing.
About his take on
Jonah Hex, Goldman said:
"He's a character that has been described as having one foot on Earth and one foot beyond the grave, that he speaks to the dead . . . at the same time he is very much [like Sergio Leone's] The Man With No Name."
For
Swamp Thing, Goldsman wants the tone to be closer to that of writer
Alan Moore's run on the comic book than to
Wes Craven's 1982 B-movie.
"We want a film with real Southern, dark horror overtones, a little bit like a classic Universal horror film."