The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Guggenheim's involvement was always intended to be temporary, and that he was assigned to the new series "[b]ecause of Goyer's limited hands-on TV series experience," something that has now apparently changed with the first half of the first season under his belt. The co-creator of the series (with Star Trek alum Brannon Braga, whom he worked with on the dear departed alien invasion series Threshold), Goyer will now act as showrunner as well as executive producer for the season's remaining "back nine" episodes. What this means for his commitments to movie projects like SuperMax or the much-rumored Dark Knight sequel remain to be seen.

Marc Guggenheim leaving 'FlashForward' [Hollywood Reporter]

Talking to Collider's Steven Weintraub, Goyer explained,

In the case of Ghost Rider [2], I wrote the script for that about nine years ago. And Sony decided, and the producers, that they wanted to make that as the sequel script. In this case, I'm coming on as producer and we're basically just doing a polish to my nine year old script, so there's not as much work involved... [Originally] it was a Blade type film, and now they want it to be PG-13. That said, The Dark Knight has come out, and The Dark Knight... I like the say it was skirting the bleeding edge of PG-13, so I think that people feel like you can get away with, not get away with, but people's concepts of what a PG-13 movie can be have changed. There's no question that we're going to have to tone some things down, but I don't think we'll have to do that much.

A retro, violent Ghost Rider? If anything can coax a better performance out've Nic Cage than what he offered in the original movie, here's hoping it's that.

David Goyer talks GHOST RIDER 2 and MAGNETO [Collider]

The Unborn comes out on DVD July 7, giving all of us another chance to appreciate the upside-down-headed dogs, Jewish exorcisms featuring Rabbi Gary Oldman, and lots of Odette Yustman freaking out. Aren't you excited?

David Goyer's television show is an adaptation of Robert Sawyer's novel. In the book the population undergoes a collective two-minute black out that gives everyone on a mysterious (and short) glimpse of their own future. See one of the main characters try and explain his "flash forward" theories in the first clip from the series:

Still not sure what to think of this whole series (as this is the most we've seen), but I do hope they continue to bring MacFarlane and his super deep voice in as a fellow FBI agent. But we'll have to wait until the pilot airs to know for sure.

The show is based on Robert J. Sawyer's novel where the everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and has a vision of the future. What each person sees changes the world forever. The series hasn't officially been picked up yet by ABC, but if this campaign is a sign, they're angling to turn it into the next Lost, in other words another confusing-yet-addictive drama.

After seeing trailers for this flick, I was pretty excited. First of all, as a horror-loving Yid, I am down with the idea that the next J-horror trend will be Jew Horror! Plus, there's the creepy dog mask thing, a really scary old man monster, the scantily-clad co-eds, Gary Oldman playing a badass rabbi, and most of all David Goyer helming as writer and director. Seriously, how could Goyer go wrong? He wrote the awesome Blade II, and co-wrote the extra-awesome Dark Knight. And now he's got this cool movie about rampaging dybbuks (the poltergeists of the chosen people, man).

But as the movie opened, it became clear that all of Goyer's most original ideas - Jew horror, cool monsters - would be mere flashes in between looooooong scenes where we see protagonist Casey (Odette Yustman, previously in Cloverfield) jogging, undressing, showering, or (worst of all) attempting to get beyond Converse sneaker acting. After watching the umpteenth videochat between Casey and her gal pal, you pretty much agree with said gal pal when she signs off by saying, "Good night, hooker!"

What's annoying is that this movie could have been so much more than a bad ripoff of truly good ghost flicks like The Ring or The Shining. Casey is being haunted by a dybbuk who entered the world during the Holocaust. Nazi medical experiments left victims vulnerable to demonic possession, and now Casey is being stalked by a creature who once possessed her relatives in the concentration camps.

I love the idea of a Jewish demon being unleashed by the Nazis, and there's a great wealth of weird Jewish mysticism that this movie could have called on to create a rich, intense story of Kabbalah gone wrong. But instead we get old ladies clutching their Stars of David as if they were rosaries (who DOES that?) and lame scenes of Casey being sexually molested by the dybbuk. Who, by the way, looks like every other scary child in every other scary child movie. Which is to say: Not very scary.

Even when the rabbi and his pals do the exorcism on Casey, Goyer is so worried that we're bored that he has to throw in yet another pervvy thing on top of all the underwear we've already seen. Yes, they actually stick an S&M-style open mouth gag in her mouth just in case she "thrashes out." What, they couldn't give her a normal mouth protector like boxers wear? No, they had to give her something that made her face look like a sex doll in bondage as the dybbuk mauled her.

I don't mean to be uncharitable, because this movie has plenty of fun bits and jumpy shocks. But it felt like run-of-the-mill B-movie horror, and I was expecting more from the creators behind it. If you're looking for schlocky amusement, The Unborn will deliver. But if you were hoping to see something that would rip your eyes out, slime your kishkas, and haunt your dreams - go see Let the Right One In this weekend instead.

MTV's Splash Page blog ran with a quote from Dark Knight producer Chuck Roven from the red carpet of the People's Choice Awards:

“We have to separate the actors from the role,” said Roven when asked whether they would’ve done anything different with Heath Ledger’s villainous Joker if they knew the actor wouldn’t be reprising the role.

“On a personal level, Heath was a friend of mine. We had worked together before ‘The Dark Knight,’ but I still think that ‘The Dark Knight’ is its own thing, and we have to separate them,” added Roven.

Could that mean they’re open to re-casting The Joker? Will we see The Clown Prince of Crime return for the “Dark Knight” sequel?

The problem is, of course, saying that they wouldn't have changed what happened to the character if they'd known Ledger was going to die isn't the same thing as saying that the character will be back, or be recast in any future Batmovie. In fact, elsewhere in the same red carpet chat, Roven is clear about the fact that - beyond scriptwriter David Goyer "talking and thinking" about the next film with Chris Nolan - he doesn't know anything about what a Dark Knight sequel would involve.

So ignore MTV may be jumping to conclusions; this one seems as likely as an Eddie Murphy Riddler right now.

‘Batman 3’ Update: Christopher Nolan & David Goyer ‘Talking,’ Says ‘Dark Knight’ Producer [MTV Splash Page]

Another awesome making-the-invisible-man-visible trick: displaced water in a swimming pool. Rock on.

However, you can feel free to avoid having your invisible guy tell invisible Wonder Woman rape jokes. Really, it's fine.

Dark Knight and The Flash writer David Goyer spilled the beans to IESB that Warner Brothers is putting the brakes on the many comic book movies they decided to stack up, one after another. These times are tough, not just for you and me but for big wig studio execs too.

“A lot of the DC movies at Warner Bros. are all on hold...They’re going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment.”

Goyer is especially hard hit by the decision, since his scripts for The Flash, the Green Arrow Super Max prison movie and a Dark Knight sequel will all most likely get pushed back.

Hearing about Hollywood showing restraint is not only deeply disturbing but troubling. How long will these projects be pushed back? Does this mean movies will get the proper time they need, and Jon Favreau can finally get the time he's been begging for on Iron Man 2? Does this also mean that people will start taking their time with big superhero action films, Chris Nolan style, and make something we can all be proud of? Goodness I hope so. It's good to see the studios acknowledging the gold mine they're sitting on.

Talking to MTV, Goyer talked about his approach to adapting HG Wells' story:

My take is kind of an extrapolation. It actually deals with a nephew of the first character. It’s got some of the characters from the H.G. Wells book, but it’s kind of a continuation... It kind of crosses a lot of genres. It’s very steam punk.

One of those other genres includes the spy movie - The plot revolves around the Invisible Man becoming a spy for the British government and sneaking into "imperialist Russia", according to the writer. And if you think that you know what kind of movie to expect, Goyer's happy to tell you that you ain't seen nothing yet:

I don’t want to give too much away, but I took what being invisible could mean to the next logical extreme... We do a lot of crazy things in it that are sort of far beyond what anyone’s done with it yet.

Image from DP Challenge.

David Goyer May Bump ‘Magneto’ To Make Way For ‘Invisible Man’ [MTV Movie Blog]

Latino Review was first to get an insider's look at the script. In Super Max, Green Arrow gets framed for murder, stripped of his super identity and imprisoned as just plain Oliver Queen, in the Super Max Penitentiary For Metahumans. He will be incarcerated with many of the hardened criminals that he helped put behind bars.

So what is the prison like? Latino Review got a quick look at the first part of the script and an report that Super Max is constantly changing its size and shape. Apparently it changes every night to disorient the prisoners. All of the prisoners are separated into groups: mortals, metas and geniuses. There is another group of criminals that are in permanent isolation.

Latino Review also spills that the prison is filled with tons of classic DC Comics villains, including the Joker, the Riddler, Lex Luthor, Blockbuster, Shock Trauma, Gemini, Icicle, Split, Djinn, Tattooed Man, Multiplex, Cascade, Merlyn, Floronic Man, Count Vertigo, Calculator, Iron Cross, Heatmonger, Pied Piper, and Backlash.

Queen has to work with some of these villains to escape from the prison so he can prove his innocence. Rumor has it Matt Damon is in talks take the star role as Oliver Queen. [Latino Review]