Tim Burton's Superman Lives is the most interesting looking Superman movie that never got made. The project ended up being killed. Over the years, we've seen a bunch of behind the scenes photos and video test footage of the crazy costumes and Nicholas Cage as the Man of Steel. The movie looked like it would have sucked hard, but we all would have still gone out and seen it. It would have been interesting to see what the finished product ended up looking like. It definitely would have been strange. So why did the movie fall apart never to be made? Well, a Kickstarter campaign has been started to give us that story!
The man behind series such as Metalocalypse and Venture Bros, Jon Schnepp, is a huge Superman fan. He's the one that wants to bring this documentary to life. It would be called The Death of Superman Lives; What Happened? It would include interviews with director Tim Burton, first screenplay writer Kevin Smith, and original cast members Nicolas Cage and Sandra Bullock. He hopes he ends up getting enough money to actually shoot a few minutes of the script that Smith wrote, and also get some artists to work on bringing to life the Braniac design that Burton wanted to use. Here's a little background on the doc...
The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? is a Feature Length Documentary about the unmade movie "Superman Lives". This film, out of all the various attempts to make a Superman movie between 1987 and 2006, would have stood the test of time and become a bonafide Cult Classic nowadays. I am not alone with my intense interest in knowing everything I can about this project, and so now I'm embarking on making a Documentary that will cover everything ever made for this film, from interviewing as many people as I can who were involved, to including actually recreating scenes from the script!!!
I’ve been interested in this film since it was first announced back in the late 90’s. Nicolas Cage was announced as Superman, Kevin Smith was announced as the Writer, Tim Burton was announced as the Director, and fans have had very heavy opinions, both positive and negative, on all of this. As news slowly bubbled out, news buzzed around about Rainbow Robot Outfits, Brainiac Skull ships, Superman not "flying", Fighting a Giant Spider, Polar Bears guarding the Fortress of Solitude. It all sounded so crazy, so weird, so different, that I honestly was hoping that they would actually make it, just so we would have something different from what had come before. It never happened. Cut to almost 15 years later, and I really wish I could slap that “Superman Lives” disc into my player, and watch this guaranteed weird, strange, and original new take on the mythology of the Superman character. By this time, whether it was a success or failure at the box office, It would have for sure been a cult classic, due mainly to its inspired casting, and its tremendous bravery in it’s attempt to merge toy sales with the weirdness.
I hope the doc gets made. I'm sure there's a lot of interesting stuff that could be uncovered about Superman Lives. Here's a little video explanation for the Kickstarter as well! Click here for more information!