Comic-Con 2020: David S Goyer says 'magic' was why Columbia Pictures fired him from 'Doctor Strange'
Before the Benedict Cumberbatch starring 'Doctor Strange' film of 2016, there were a number of attempts to get the Sorcerer Supreme to the big screen. One of them involved renowned screenwriter for comic book adaptations, David S Goyer. In an interview during the Comic-Con@Home event, Goyer revealed just why his vision of Doctor Strange fell through and what ultimately got him fired from the project.'
In a panel entitled 'The Art of Adapting Comics to the Screen: David S Goyer Q&A,' Goyer sat down with 'Backstory Magazine' publisher Jeff Goldsmith for an interview focusing on his long career adapting comic books to films. It was while talking about his first big success story with 'Blade' that Goyer began talking about the challenges that come with a blockbuster hit.
"When we did Blade, it didn't matter," he said, "it was considered a tertiary character, and Marvel, I think, had just gone through bankruptcy and they didn't really care, in terms of optioning the character. So there wasn't a lot of editorial interference with Blade." He then continued in response to a question from Goldsmith about dealing with film industry executives. "Once 'X-Men' came out and was successful and once 'Blade' came out, and was successful, then Hollywood realized that there was a lot of gold in those hills."
"There was this sort of gold rush, where studios were clamoring for any Marvel or DC property, without often even knowing what they were," he said and continued. "It was during that period that I actually did an adaptation of Doctor Strange." This was for Columbia Pictures before the film company became Sony Pictures. Goyer talked about being excited about the script he turned in. However, that adaptation wasn't meant to be.
"I remember the executive at the time saying, 'We love this script and we want to make it, but there's a lot of magic in it, and we wish you could take a lot of the magic out,'" said Goyer. "It was then that I realized that they had no idea what they optioned." The whole point of Doctor Strange is, after all, the fact that he is the Marvel Universe's greatest practitioner of magic, and this wasn't something Goyer was willing to budge on. "I remember I kind of snapped back and I said, 'Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you wanted Doctor Strange, but I guess you wanted Doctor Mundane,'" he said. The executives at Columbia were none to happy about this, because Goyer adds, simply, "And then they fired me."
It all turned out for the best, as 2016's 'Doctor Stranger' allowed the character to team up with the rest of the Marvel Universe in 'Infinity War' and 'Endgame' and most importantly, they allowed the character to do magic. Goyer’s work can next be seen on the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Sandman with Neil Gaiman and showrunner Allan Heinberg and in the Apple TV+ adaptation of 'Foundation'.
You can watch the entire interview here.
