WI: "Superman Lives" gets Made?

There is recently an internet buzz about this, since there's a documentary on Kickstarter trying to get up about it.

"Superman Lives" was a film that was supposed to be made directed by Tim Burton, produced by John Peters, with a script from Kevin Smith and starring Nicolas Cage as Superman. It was based on the Death of Superman story arc, and was to feature Braniac, and it was supposed to come out in 1998 and revitalize the Superman franchise that had been dormant since the 80s. Costume tests were done, posters were made (of which only one is known to still exist), scripts were written, but it never ended up happening. Things fell apart, people came and went (Smith was replaced when Burton came in because Burton wanted his own people), and it just failed to materialize. It was also, depending on which script you read, absolute odd, unique or abysmal. The original script was campy, and that's when Kevin Smith came in since he said it was crap and they had him rewrite it, which he did. However, the producer was a schmuck and wanted things like Superman not to wear a costume ("too faggy" in his words) or fly, and for Brainiac to have a dog like Chewbacca so they could sell toys, and for them to get attack by polar bears when they went to the Fortress of Solitude, and for Superman to fight a giant spider. Basically, the terrible elements of 90s corporate Hollywood. Smith ended up being replaced when Burton came aboard, as said, but I don't know where the script went from there.

Smith talks about it somewhat here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk

And here's some detail:
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/superman/24306/a-closer-look-at-the-superman-lives-script
http://superman.wikia.com/wiki/Superman_Lives

So what if "Superman Lives" had been made?
 
Both ideas sound horrible. I guess its hard to make a movie based on a character as powerful as superman. Maybe ghostrider wouldn't get made.

It could inspire people to make better superhero movies
 
That linked me to a drink called Malort, a horrific swedish drink.
It's actually the Swedish word for Artemisia absinthium (wormwood, that is) - ört is the Swedish word for herb. If I'm understanding it correctly, what Jeppson called Malört is bäsk, which is indeed a wormwood-flavoured bitter alcoholic drink. And probably just as good as Superman Lives would have been; I haven't tested it, but I can't imagine it'd be particularly appetizing.
 
LordInsane said:
Artemisia absinthium (wormwood, that is)
It's poisonous, isn't it?:eek:

Seeing Nic Cage in that outfit, with that hair...:eek::eek: That's pretty poisonous, too.:p

Of course, the words "Nicolas Cage as Superman" should have been a warning to everybody involved in the first place.:rolleyes::p
 
It would be interesting to see the overall effect on superhero movies that would have come about if Superman Lives had been made, coming out so quickly on the heels of Batman and Robin, could delay the advent of the superhero craze that happened in the early 2000's. Given the poor reception of both films (especially "Superman Lives") I could see studios being reticent to greenlight films like the X-men or Spiderman in TTL.

But would such stigma prevent M. Night Shyamalan from making Unbreakable? Perhaps in TTL the negative stigma given to Superhero movies convinces Shyamalan to do his best to "get it right"? In TTL Unbreakable focuses less on the origin story of Bruce Willis' character and more on his actions as a superhero (with a better bad guy perhaps? more climactic final battle?). As a result it becomes TTL's version of Batman Begins, effectively revitalizing the superhero franchise.

Following Unbreakable's success at the box office, various Marvel projects (X-men, Spiderman etc.) are green lit, and DC begins to hurriedly work on rebooting it's devastated Superman and Batman franchises.
 
To me the problem of superhero movies is that some will focus the entire movie on the hero's origin which is explained in a few panels in the comics sometimes. That's why the 89 Batman is good. If we already know the origin we don't need it retold for half or almost all the movie.

That's the problem of this movie. The origin is one story, the death is one and rebirth with a new villian is a another movie.

I loved the Joker's origin in the 89 Batman movie. I liked Jack Napier being murderous before becoming the Joker.
 

Stolengood

Banned
Wow... that's a terrible-ass script. :eek:

Been looking at some others, and I must say, the Alex Ford script was probably the best alternative for the time; shame it wasn't made.
 
Nicholas Cage as anything is normally a bad sign. (Not always, but normally.)

I think Cage is one of those, "so bad, he's good" actors.

Anyway, I think it would be interesting to see Tim Burton's take on Superman. Burton and Batman can go together, since Burton's films always have a dark and weird feel to them, and dark and weird are present in a lot of batman media as well. Superman on the other hand is all about light and hope. I can't see Burton making a good Superman. In fact, considering how Burton lost out to work on Batman III, I'd be surprised to learn he was even considered by Warner Bros. to direct any superhero movie.
 
Sounds "so bad, it's good". The kind of movie that everyone agrees is awful, but retains a cult following for it's campyness.
 
Sounds "so bad, it's good". The kind of movie that everyone agrees is awful, but retains a cult following for it's campyness.

So... like Batman & Robin.:p

If both these were to have been released at around the same time, that might have put a hold on most comic book adaption movies.
 
It depends the direction. It could be Batman & Robin levels of bad. It could also manage to be good. I don't see it as being destined to be terrible, depending on the direction.
I do suspect that it would be received as interesting, but not really Superman and not being true to his character. Then again, that was also true to Tim Burton's Batman, where you had him murdering people and whatnot, and it's true of Sam Raimi's Spiderman, who was not a smart ass with wisecracks like in the comics but was simply a whiny and constantly down and frankly depressing nerd. The latter got fixed with the "Amazing Spiderman" reboot, which is much truer to the Spiderman character.
 
There's a few "Superman Lives" scripts out there, and other would be Superman reboots besides -- this is the best summary of them I can find. I'm actually intrigued by the 2000 version -- the idea of a dark Superman film, where Kal-El straight-up kills the badguy released circa 2002 could be its own kind of disaster for the franchise! (Not to mention said mess would be directed by Oliver Stone :mad:)
 
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