Comic book fans know him as the writer behind Batman Begins and the “Blade” trilogy and now David Goyer is on to another project, but one that doesn’t have anything to do with the comic book genre. The film is called The Invisible and for once he didn’t lend his gifted writing talents to the project, instead he’s directing the Spyglass movie and couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
“It’s demonstrably different from some of the stuff I’ve been involved with before,” Goyer told us. “It’s closer to the first movie I ever directed which is a little film called ‘Zig Zag.'”
ComingSoon.net visited Goyer in the edit bay at Disney Studios, where the filmmaker was putting his last minute touches on the film. There, we got a chance to watch a few scenes from the supernatural thriller.
The Invisible is a remake of a Swedish film that was never released in the States and as we sat in the edit bay, Goyer explained why he’s so into a movie like this.
“What I really liked about the original was that it was a movie aimed at young people that wasn’t a teen comedy, it wasn’t a slasher film. It reminded me of when I was a kid growing up, sort of young adult novels like ‘The Outsiders’ or ‘I Am the Cheese,’ or I read things like ‘Fade.’ When you’re growing up, you deal with all of these issues and you think no one understands you and I just thought no one makes movies like that anymore. This original Swedish film kind of tapped into that and I really like that. What I also thought was really different about it was that it was more morally complex than your average sort of Hollywood studio film. It does something really very interesting in the course of the movie which it sort of changes protagonists.”
The film is centered on two teenagers Nick (Justin Chatwin) and Annie (Margarita Levieva) who both are dealing with dark issues such as suicide, abuse and the feeling of being completely alone.
The first scene we were shown was Nick’s birthday party at his extravagant and ornamental house. His mother (Marcia Gay Harden) is toasting him and presents him with a present, a new watch. While she looks as though she couldn’t be more proud of her son, she also couldn’t be more disconnected. Although it appears as though Nick has everything he wants with his picturesque house and his bright future, he is despondent and dismal and his mother doesn’t even notice.
“The premise is this kid who you met, Nick, comes from sort of a privileged family. He’s kind of the golden boy in school,” Goyer explains after we see the first clip. “He’s got this friend, Chris Marquette, who is put upon as sort of the sad sack at school and then there’s another girl named Annie who is the bad seed who is constantly getting in trouble. She’s got a relationship with a much older man. She’s involved in stealing cars and things like that. Through a series of misunderstandings, she ends up getting arrested in school.”
The next clip we were shown was of Annie and her boyfriend Marcus (Alex O’Loughlin). She’s dressed in all black and wearing a beanie. You know she’s up to something by what she’s wearing and the emptiness in her eyes, but we don’t know what it is quite yet. The music playing in the background is loud and brilliantly sets up the scene. You begin to hear car alarms go off as Marcus steals a car. Before Annie gets in the car you see her walk over to a jewelry store window and Marcus yells at her to stop.
“Hey. Hey. What the hell are you doing? No Annie, no.”
But, she doesn’t listen. She breaks the glass and steals the jewelry from the store. She gets in the car smiling and cheering as they race off down the street in the stolen car.
The next morning, Annie is leaving Marcus’ house. He wakes up as she’s getting her things together.
“What time is it?” Marcus asks.
“Go back to sleep,” Annie tells him.
“Leave the bag. I’ll take care of it.”
“Sure you will.”
“What, you’re going to shop it around school?” Marcus snidely asks. “It’s not like cell phones.”
“What I can’t make a little money on the side?”
“What for? College?”
The two continue to argue. Marcus wants her to leave the bag of stolen jewelry, but she refuses and storms out.
While the scenes we were shown were dark and powerful, the most intense sequence we saw was when Nick was being brutally attacked and left for dead in the forest. Right before he’s attacked, Nick is at a party with his girlfriend making out. She’s the good girl of the school, but he’s not really into her.
“What would she think of us right now? Your mom,” the girlfriend asks Nick.
He doesn’t answer. She finds the watch his mother gave him for his birthday clasped onto one of his belt loops.
“That’s a nice watch,” she comments about the second watch on his wrist. “So why are you still wearing that beat up old thing?”
“My dad gave it to me,” Nick replies.
“Wouldn’t he want you to have a better watch?” she asks in a seductive voice. “What are you doing?”
“Have a good time,” Nick says as he abruptly leaves her and starts walking home.
It’s pitch black outside and it’s quiet at first when you see Nick walking in the middle of the highway with car lights flying behind him. Then you hear tires screeching as Nick runs to get out of the way. The driver’s side door swings opens and knocks him down.
Three people get out of the car and just start beating him. Unlike the scene where Annie is robbing the jewelry store, the music isn’t blasting in the background setting up the tone for what’s about to happen. Instead you hear Nick getting kicked, punched and viciously attacked.
But, he doesn’t fight back. He takes it. He even laughs about it at one point when he’s asked “who’s damaged now?” “You are,” Nick indomitably answers.
At this point, he’s kicked so hard that the assailants realize they’ve hurt him too badly and leave him in an area where he can’t be found.
After the shocking assault, Nick realizes he is in invisible and is a limbo state as he races to find out what happened and solve his own crime before he perishes forever.
Be sure to check out more on Goyer and The Invisible by reading the Q & A. The Invisible opens on April 13.
