There are plenty of movies that have never been made, though; were planned. One being Nicolas Cage’s Superman. That’s right – it’s hard to believe that the actor was once slated to be the Man of Steel, but Superman Lives was meant to star Cage and be written by director Kevin Smith. Though we’ve seen a picture of Cage trying on the iconic suit, DC has taken the suit out of the Warner Bros. vault to display it, where writer Ray Carsillo was able to snap a great picture.
Producer Jon Peters had big plans for Superman Lives, which included Superman not having the ability to fly and would fight against a giant spider in the film’s third act. The film was also supposed to feature Brainiac and a space dog as Superman’s companion for marketing reasons. Sounds pretty whacky and the film never lifted off the ground even though it was supposed to be directed by Tim Burton himself. A few script rewriters later and Warner Bros. pulled the project before it could leave pre-production, which is a shame considering Cage is a huge Superman fan.
The plot sounds crazy and it’s hard to think of Cage as Superman material, but I can’t lie and say that I dislike the costume. It’s not bad all things considering; maybe Superman Lives Could have been a decent film, but it’s unlikely that will ever happen. In Hollywood, it’s not uncommon for many projects to never happen, even if they had been floating around the studios for some time.
Cage did share his opinions in regards to the 2015’s film The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?:
“The only thing I’ll say about that — because that is such a lighting rod hot topic and if I say anything at all it just seems to snowball — but I will say that I had great belief in that movie and in what Tim Burton’s vision was going to be for that movie,” Cage said around the time the documentary was released. “I would’ve loved to have seen it, but I feel that in many ways, it was sort of a win/win because of the power of the imagination. I think people can actually see the movie in their minds now and imagine it and in many ways that might resonate more deeply than the finished project.”
In a little way, Cage was able to at least voice Superman in the recent Teen Titans GO! movie, so that has to be some consolation, right? What do you think about the suit? Do you wish Superman Lives happened? Let us know!
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
