The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?

"Nerds." "Geeks." "Sweaties."

Look how far we've come. We rule the world.

But it wasn't always this way.

Let's go back to a time

when there was no comic book cinematic universe,

when you had to wait three years to get a superhero movie,

back to a time when Batman used a credit card.

This is a film about a superhero movie that didn't get made.

In 1998, a movie called "Superman Lives" was in production.

It was going to be directed by Tim Burton

and star Nicolas Cage as Superman.

I've been fascinated with this since I first heard about it.

From the concept design to the various scripts

to the people involved,

this would've been the most craziest, cosmic Superman movie ever made.

Schnepp: What do you think the "Superman Lives" movie

that Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage were going to make,

what do you think that movie would've been like?

Nicolas Cage is probably

one of our generation's definitive actors.

I don't know if he'd be able to pull it off or not.

But it would've been interesting. It's one of those "what ifs."

I saw some of the artwork,

and I just didn't-- It just didn't fly with me.

There's nothing about his face that fits, nothing about his voice

that fits that deep Superman voice that you can trust.

It just seems kind of hilarious.

I'm sorry, God. No.

Nicolas Cage is a great actor,

so I think he could've played that really well.

We all watched George Reeves and I watched Christopher Reeve.

I wasn't like, "That's George Reeves. Chris Reeve."

It was Superman.

Nic Cage, he, like-- That's Nic Cage as Superman.

Nic Cage would've been awesome.

I mean, I-- Still one of my favorites is "Wild at Heart" with him.

I just figure that guy as Superman would be awesome.

The attempts to make superhero movies in the '90s

weren't particularly successful, I felt.

Dick Tracy did the same

or the Joel Schumacher "Batman" movies did the same,

with the costumes super bright and primary-colored,

and the idea of trying to create what a comic would look like on screen--

Obviously, it would've been interesting to see it.

It'd be pretty weird to see Nicolas Cage as Superman.

"Superman Lives" was basically written by three different screenwriters:

Kevin Smith, Wesley Strick and Dan Gilroy.

All three scripts revolved around the same story

basically taken from the comic book series,

"The Death of Superman,"

where Superman fought the villains Lex Luthor,

Brainiac, and the killing machine, Doomsday.

Doomsday killed Superman in the comic books,

and then he came back to life using Kryptonian technology.

This revitalized the comic book series.

Warner Brothers took their cue from the comic books

to revitalize their movie franchise.

On the set of "Superman Returns,"

at any moment in Video Village,

Bryan had sort of a little, like-- It was like a little binder.

No one could really touch it.

And inside he had this photograph of Nicolas Cage

from Tim Burton's aborted version of "Superman."

Oftentimes we'll be in studio executive meetings,

and people will bitch about the fact that Brandon Routh's costume

is so similar to the comics,

that it has the underwear, that it looks a little kitschy.

And so, Bryan, whenever that would happen in a meeting,

would snap his fingers and have his assistant pull out this photograph,

and it would instantly shut them up.

He would reach over to Video Village,

pick up his book, and he would say, "You know,

you guys were gonna make this.

We're not making this."

Schnepp: Sometimes the interest in the "what if"

is stronger than the actual final product

because it fills your mind with the possibilities

of what could've been.

That's something that interested me when I saw

the concept art for "Superman Lives."

Amazing, strange designs, cosmic ideas,

creatures, aliens, Superman with a strange metal "S."

All these things interested me, and I wanted to find out why

it never got made.

Morrison: Imagine a distant planet

in a far-off star system,

light-years from here.

We've never seen it in our telescopes, we know nothing about them,

but they look a bit like us.

A star in the last days of its life,

and imagine that their planet is under threat of destruction,

and those fantastic scientists say there's only one thing they can do,

and that's to send a child out into space

who might carry the physical attributes and mental attributes

of these people have engendered over the centuries.

And imagine then that this child coming to Earth

suddenly is gifted with powers that come from a great society

that it gave birth to,

and he not only brings those powers but he brings a morality.

Just imagine what he could do to our world

with the aim of changing it and making us better.

"Superman Lives--"

or "Superman Reborn" and then "Superman Lives"

and then later "Superman Returns,"

was meant to be kind of, like,

let's kick-start Superman again

in a bit more earnest way.

Not the spit-curl and wink

of Chris Reeve and Dick Donner.

They wanted a '90s version of Superman,

even though when I was writing,

all I was writing was Chris Reeve.

I thought Bryan Singer's version forgot to put in--

- Action? - Yeah, like, fuckin'--

He didn't get to punch anybody. He punched an island.

And then somebody pointed out,

they're like, "Superman doesn't get to punch everything

every movie," and I thought about it

and looked back, and sometimes he didn't punch shit.

He fought some video game-type things in "Superman III."

Fought good taste in "Superman III."

- Fought himself, remember? - Turned purple and--

Drinking whiskey, burning the peanuts.

Smith: I can see why Bryan Singer was sucked into doing

a quasi sequel to the Dick Donner Superman movies.

Those were our Superman movies. They were so fucking magical.

And they found a way to make them work

where your parents could sit there and be like,

"Yeah, all right. He's fighting General Zod. I get it."

They're not like, "This is horseshit." They're like, "I can get behind this."

So, there's a pull to it because it's the classic lore

and Dick Donner did such a great job with it.

Jon Peters: "Superman" was something I had seen with Dick Donner and I loved,

and I was mesmerized by it.

So that was the granddaddy of all the superheroes.

I've made over 100 movies,

movies that I did with Polygram Pictures

and all the movies that we've produced and everything.

I was the chairman of Sony, and I was leaving.

Peter and I were splitting up.

And they said to me, "You're not going to believe this,

but we think Superman is available.

So I got into negotiation with the Salkinds and their lawyers

because Warner Brothers had not picked up the option.

They didn't know that. It was before computers.

So they would have to send someone in a back room, "bing, bing, bing,"

going through these things that-- It's not on a computer--

Would-- Would be normally red-flagged.

I got a call from Terry Semel, who was the head of Warner Brothers

who said, "We want you to come back to the studio."

And I said, "I'm working on something now which is really what I want to do."

I had made "Batman." And he said, "What?"

And I said, "I think I bought the rights to Superman.

He said, "You idiot. Warner Brothers owns it. I own it."

I said, "No, you don't. Check."

Came back and said, "You're right. You do."

Essentially, if you read my script for "Superman Lives,"

it's like fan fiction.

It's-- It's-- And-- And, fuck, I was so nascent in my career.

I was 26 years old, 27 years old. '96, '97.

So, I sat down and met with

a creative exec named Basil Iwanyk.

He goes, "What would you think about 'Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian?'"

I said, "That exists?"

He's like, "Yeah, we've been trying to figure out 'Beetlejuice' for years."

I was like, "What's to figure out? Burton cracked the code."

He goes, "Well, you know, we've been working on--

Trying-- Working a Superman."

And I was like, "Superman?" That was no part

of the meeting that I was going in for, it just came up in conversation.

But he had given me the Superman script to take home.

And, oh, good Lord. Terrible title from the jump.

It might as well have just said:

It was just not the Superman movie I ever would've imagined.

There was a scene in it I remember specifically where

Clark Kent's going to a psychiatrist and talking about

having this "I'm Superman" conversation,

and the psychiatrist is like, "No, you're not."

This is something for a comic book fan,

particularly at that time and place in my life.

I was like, "Oh, why don't you just piss on the Gospels, fuck!

Why don't you just make Jesus do dick jokes? This is ridiculous!"

Why not just reach out to the guys who do the comic books?

They would get it. This guy don't get it.

And he goes, "Yeah, but those guys are comic book guys."

I swear to you. That was 1996 mentality.

Get another call from my agent, he goes,

"You made it all the way up the chain, dude.

You're going to meet with Lorenzo di Bonaventura,

the head of Warner Brothers."

I was like, "Really?"

I was the executive in charge of it

for quite a period of time at Warner Brothers.

Jon Peters came to Warners and said,

"Listen, I think we can put all these rights together."

We put the rights together.

Kevin Smith came in with a really great take.

Lorenzo was the first one to ever say this

of everyone I met with:

He goes, "All right, what would you do differently?"