In a recent interview for Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams talked about the Superman: Flyby script that he wrote for Warner Bros. at one point, and also discussed how it might relate to Zack Snyder's upcoming Man of Steel.
Abrams wrote Superman: Flyby in 2002 before he blew up to be the famous director that he is now. At the time he was best known for his work on the TV series Felicity. It would have been cool to see Abrams' vision brought to life at the time. Here's what he had to say when asked about it when talking with Empire,
The thing that I tried to emphasize in the story was that if the Kents found this boy, Kal-El, who had the power that he did, he would have most likely killed them both in short order. And the idea that these parents would see – if they were lucky to survive long enough – that they had to immediately begin teaching this kid to limit himself and to not be so fast, not be so strong, not be so powerful. The result of that, psychologically, would be fear of oneself, self-doubt and being ashamed of what you were capable of. Extrapolating that to adulthood became a fascinating psychological profile of someone who was not pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent. Who had become that kind of a character who is not able or willing to accept who he was and what his destiny was.
It almost sounds exactly like what Christopher Nolan and Snyder are doing with Man of Steel. So it looks like fans are going to get to see this vision anyway. Abrams went on to address Man of Steel saying,
The idea in the movie was that he became Superman because he realized he had to finally own his strength and what he’d always been. I don’t know if that’s what Zack and Chris [Nolan] are doing, but it looks like that’s part of the idea and I could not be more thrilled to see that movie. That to me was always the way to go.
I'm excited for this modern day take on Superman, and it seems like it's going to be the movie that fans have been wanting to see for years. As for Abrams, he may not have ever been able to make his Superman movie, but he went on to bigger and better things, and I'm excited to see the stuff he brings us in the future.