Source: Superman Lives (unmade; 1998)
Type: Film
Electric Superman Week ends with a cinematic version that never was, and either because it would have come out in 1998 or because the parties involved were clueless, Superman Lives looks like it would have featured the electric Superman emblem.
How this film can to be and then not be is a convoluted tale, one we'll return to again because Burton's Superman is also Kevin Smith's Superman and Jon Peters' Superman, but with each passing of the baton, the take on Superman is different.
And so it goes that Tim Burton was hired to direct Kevin Smith, except that he had Wesley Strick (Arachnophobia, Cape Fear, The Saint) rewrite it. Strick's Superman would have been introspective, questioning his place in the world and thinking of himself as an outsider (shades of JMS). He would have been killed by both Lex Luthor and Brainiac amalgamated during the film into "Lexiac". Don't worry, Superman would have been resurrected by "the power of K", which is described as the spirit of Krypton. "Use the K, Kal!" Superman Reborn/Lives never shed its ties to the famous death and rebirth story which had put Superman in the headlines only a few years earlier, which is why the black "resurrection" costume is so prominent, but it was also a mandate from producer Jon Peters because the red and blues were "too faggy".
Here's signed actor Nicholas Cage in a red and blue plastic version, but still with the electric "S" (fake).
Peters wanted Cage because he could make people believe he wasn't from this planet. Burton wanted him because he believed Cage could change his persona enough that you'd believe in the Superman/Clark Kent dual identity. In other casting news, Kevin Spacey might have been Luthor, Pittsburgh would have doubled for Metropolis, and Brainiac would have been incarnated as an upside-down cone topped with a fishbowl with a floating skull in it, as per Burton's sketch.
In the end, after a couple of further rewrites by Dan Gilroy (Freejack) to make the film cheaper, the project was abandoned (after 30 million $ had already been spent) and if I understand "pay or play" contracts, Cage walked away with 20 million $ and Burton with 5 million $ and a year of his life down the drain (unless you don't get the money if you walk away yourself). Either way, that's a 30 million dollar bullet we dodged there.
To be prequeled!
Type: Film
Electric Superman Week ends with a cinematic version that never was, and either because it would have come out in 1998 or because the parties involved were clueless, Superman Lives looks like it would have featured the electric Superman emblem.
How this film can to be and then not be is a convoluted tale, one we'll return to again because Burton's Superman is also Kevin Smith's Superman and Jon Peters' Superman, but with each passing of the baton, the take on Superman is different.
And so it goes that Tim Burton was hired to direct Kevin Smith, except that he had Wesley Strick (Arachnophobia, Cape Fear, The Saint) rewrite it. Strick's Superman would have been introspective, questioning his place in the world and thinking of himself as an outsider (shades of JMS). He would have been killed by both Lex Luthor and Brainiac amalgamated during the film into "Lexiac". Don't worry, Superman would have been resurrected by "the power of K", which is described as the spirit of Krypton. "Use the K, Kal!" Superman Reborn/Lives never shed its ties to the famous death and rebirth story which had put Superman in the headlines only a few years earlier, which is why the black "resurrection" costume is so prominent, but it was also a mandate from producer Jon Peters because the red and blues were "too faggy".Here's signed actor Nicholas Cage in a red and blue plastic version, but still with the electric "S" (fake).
Peters wanted Cage because he could make people believe he wasn't from this planet. Burton wanted him because he believed Cage could change his persona enough that you'd believe in the Superman/Clark Kent dual identity. In other casting news, Kevin Spacey might have been Luthor, Pittsburgh would have doubled for Metropolis, and Brainiac would have been incarnated as an upside-down cone topped with a fishbowl with a floating skull in it, as per Burton's sketch.In the end, after a couple of further rewrites by Dan Gilroy (Freejack) to make the film cheaper, the project was abandoned (after 30 million $ had already been spent) and if I understand "pay or play" contracts, Cage walked away with 20 million $ and Burton with 5 million $ and a year of his life down the drain (unless you don't get the money if you walk away yourself). Either way, that's a 30 million dollar bullet we dodged there.
To be prequeled!
Comments
I heard a story somewhere that Nick Cage turned down the role because the suit sucked. He walked around his neighborhood in the S-Suit, but none of the kids thought he looked like Superman, so he turned it down.