Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer returns to the director chair with The Invisible, a film he describes as a supernatural thriller that evolves into a redemptive love story. The Invisible follows high school student Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin) who is trapped between the world of the living and the dead. Unable to communicate with his friends and family, Nick’s spirit has to figure out what happened before it’s too late.
The Origin of The Invisible: The Invisible is based on a Swedish novel that, according to Goyer, was never translated into English. Additionally there was a Swedish film based on that book, but that movie’s never been released in the United States. The story caught Goyer’s eye when he saw a bootleg tape of it three years ago. “I know, a pirated videotape…through a friend of a friend,” admitted Goyer. “And I just loved the movie. I thought it was going to go a certain way. In fact, at first I kind of rolled my eyes when I was watching the film 20 minutes in. I was like, ‘Oh, I know where it’s going,’ and then it didn’t go that way. Then there was another point in the film where I said, ‘Oh, I know where it’s going,’ and then it didn’t go that way.
I just kept watching and watching, and I really liked it. I really liked that it was, and I mean this in a good way, very European. It didn’t follow Hollywood conventions. So when I found out that Spyglass wanted to remake the film, I kind of chased it down. They were surprised that I wanted to do it, but I argued very passionately to do it and convinced them.”
The Logistics of Setting Up Each Scene: Goyer says blocking each scene was more difficult than he anticipated. The supporting actors have to ignore the film’s main character, Nick (Chatwin) and props break/repair in a single take. Goyer said, “I had no idea until we started filming how complicated it was going to be. I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be a nice little melodrama.’ But once you realize…because we did our first scene and nobody can interact with the lead character. Nobody can make eye contact with him. And especially when you’re dealing with scenes sometimes when you’ve got 50 or 60 extras and takes would be ruined because that person was looking at him, things like that. Then after a few days, you realized, ‘Oh my God, this is actually really complicated.’
Plus we did all sorts of in-camera trickery. I didn’t want to do a lot of overt visual effects where he phases through walls or he looks like a specter or anything like that. But we did a lot of in-camera trickery with motion control and things like that, where he’s on one side of the room and then the camera moves over and there he is on the other side of the room. Obviously he broke the laws of physics to get there, but we didn’t show it. So yes, there’s a scene in the movie where he gets angry at his mom and he throws the chair through the window, and we pan back to him and pan back to the window all in one shot and the window’s not broken. We did a number of things like that.”
Goyer continued, “The Swedish version didn’t do anything in-camera like that. It was all in cuts, but I thought that was kind of fun. I don’t know if you noticed, the first three minutes of the movie are all one shot. Most audience members don’t notice but that was fun.”
Not the Typical David Goyer Type of Movie: Goyer readily admits The Invisible isn’t what audiences have grown to expect from him. “I think to the extent that the public is aware of me, they will think it’s atypical for sure. If you look at Batman Begins or the Blade movies or Dark City or any of that stuff, they’ll think, ‘What the hell?’ But in terms of the movies that I watch or the books that I read or things like that, I’m sure you have varied interests as do I. So I don’t think it’s atypical for me.”
Are There Any Goyerisms in The Invisible?: “Well, the only Goyerism really is that in the garage scene, the character of Marcus [played by Alex O'Loughlin] is an auto mechanic and when he gets a call from Annie [Margarita Levieva], if you look in the background, they’re working on the Blade car behind him,” revealed Goyer.
Working with Writers Mick Davis and Christine Roum: Goyer’s written his share of successful screenplays and that helped him develop a good working relationship with The Invisible screenwriters. “I think being a writer myself, I was more open-minded and sympathetic to listening to what the writers had to say because I’ve had the experience of having my scripts get ruined,” explained Goyer. “Now, I think the best scenario, when I worked with Guillermo del Toro or Chris Nolan or people like that, we would have a healthy but combative relationship which I think is good. That’s why Chris brought me onto Batman was so that he could have somebody to argue with. Out of that would come the best material, so I really encourage that with the writers on this. I’m developing a number of things to direct that I’m not the writer on as well. I like that interchange. I think that’s good.”
David Goyer’s Work Routine: “I get up, usually I’ll write one thing from 9 to 11 and I’ll switch gears and write something else from 11 to 1. In the afternoon I’ll do, whether it’s this, I’ll do non-writing. Whether it’s editing... Obviously I’m not writing when I’m shooting something, but all the writing stuff happens from 9 to 1 and all the non-writing stuff happens from 1 to 6 or whatever.
I’m a creature of habit and that’s just the way that worked for me and the way I’ve been doing it for 18 years, so now it’s very regimented. I’m always by 9 behind the computer and I always finish by 1. I found that it works best for me to create a very specific discipline and just stick to it like it’s a real job.”
