Best Geeky Finds – The Death of Superman

Blog-BGFImagine a world where the tale of the Man of Steel is dark. Not like destroying-Metropolis-to-take-down-Zod dark, but Batman dark. A world where Nicholas Cage is Superman (not wanting to be or thinks he is Superman, which I think Cage might already believe, but actual is playing him). Where Chris Rock is Jimmy Olsen. A Pre-“Superman Returns” film with Kevin Spacey as a Lex Luthor/Brainiac hybrid. What kind of Superman movie would this be? One directed by Tim Burton.

The documentary The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? tells the story of such a film that was never completed. Jon Schnepp interviews most of the individuals involved in this film to learn the reasons this film never completely took off. Based on the above scenarios, I can’t understand why it never did. In 1996, superfan Kevin Smith approached Warner Bros about writing the script for the proposed upcoming re-envisioning of Superman based around the 1992 comic story “The Death of Superman.” At this time a director had not been found yet, but Kevin Smith was in the process of promoting Chasing Amy so he had the time to put the story together. The documentary shows segments of Smith’s draft, including his battle with Brainiac and his ultimate death.

nNt2LWZThe issue with the original idea of this film was 3 rules set at the beginning by producer Jon Peters: 1) Superman was not allowed to fly; 2) he could not be seen in the famous costume; and 3) there had to be a scene of Superman fighting a giant spider. While I had heard about the spider detail before watching this documentary, I was unaware that it was for a Superman film—this rumor has often been associated with Batman after the final Batman and Robin flop. For the other two stipulations however, I am thoroughly shocked. No flying? No suit? Even Clark’s suit in Smallville had the same colors and by the end of the series would start to resemble the classic red and blue tights.

Once the film got its director, Tim Burton, Smith’s script was thrown out and new script writers were brought in. The spider creature was created, Brainiac’s zoo was regularly being multiplied, and Nicholas Cage was trying his best to be the long-haired Kryptonian.

After many rewrites to reduce the budget and changes in writers, the production was put on hold in 1998. At that point Burton was in the process of directing Sleepy Hollow so he was off the movie and a new director had to be found. As this search continued, Nicholas Cage finally decided to leave the film in 2000, seeing that it would probably not be made. With the less-than-positive reviews of Batman & Robin in 1997 the studio decided to shelve the project, allowing for Smallville to hit the CW in 2001.

As a result of this film’s failed creation, the next Superman film we would see was Brandon Routh’s Superman Returns in 2006. After seeing the proposed story for Superman Lives, this film’s story makes a bit more sense and I now understand why Superman has been missing for so long.

If you can’t wait for Dawn of Justice, or maybe want to see something better than the current actors, check out this documentary. The trailer is on YouTube.

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