The Death of Superman Lives – Jon Schnepp, best known for his work on Metalocalypse, discusses his upcoming documentary on one of the most hyped Superman movies that never happened.
The year was 1998. Bill Clinton was still our president. The economy was booming. The music industry still resembled some inkling of having a soul. And Hollywood had not yet resorted to regurgitating old ideas with watered down scripts in order to cash in on original success….I’m looking at you “Son of the Mask”. Yes 1998 was the year that brought us such memorable films as Saving Private Ryan, The Big Lebouwski, American History X, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Shakespeare in Love, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Blade….and the list goes on ladies and gents. Seriously, if there were a Hall of Fame year of film award, ’98 has got to be up there amongst the top 5 or 10 contenders.
What you will not see on that list is a blockbuster that never hit the block. It was a film boasting such names as Tim Burton, Nic Cage(late 90s bad ass version not post Ghost Rider dissapointment), and Kevin Smith. A project that was meant to rejuvenate one of our most iconic heroes, and usher in the dawn of a new golden age of film genre. The film was aptly/inaptly titled, “Superman Lives” and could have been the spark to reenergize a franchise that desperately needed a win. Let’s face it, Superman III & IV are the bastard red headed step children that DC should have left in the dumpster outside prom night years ago. Tim Burton was going to be the savior. He envisioned a lighter and brighter Metropolis, but keeping with his overall Burtonesque artistic tone. He cast the unobvious choice of Nicolas Cage as in the title role, which would have been a nice breath of fresh air. Cage could have brought an intensity and gravitas while also hitting the more offbeat and eccentric qualities of a Clark Kent. He would have fit right into a screenplay written by ultimate comic appreciator Kevin Smith. And speaking of the screenplay, the villains were to have been none other than Braniac and Doomsday, following the story arc of the iconic “Death of Superman” comic books. Finally! A Superman story that moved away from the tired plot of Lex Luther gets Kryptonite and fights Superman/takes over world. Kal-El is an alien with no real equal on this planet. The only real interesting stories have been when he’s been challenged by other extra terrestrials. And how awesome would it have been to see the Doomsday fight on the silver screen?! Downright shit your pants awesome!
So what happened? Why did two years of work just all of a sudden get scrapped? Who are the sons of bitches that deprived us of what could have been an incredible new visualization of a classic hero!?!? oh right…we are the sons of bitches. That’s right. All it took was a leaked internet photo and some die hard fans to get the ball rolling that ended up shelving this project forever. The now famed disco fever superman suit that launched a thousand outcries via the interwebs, still looms like a Las Vegas skyline shadow over the entire project. It turns out this night-light suit was only meant to be in the film a total of two minutes as the regenerative suit he would only wear briefly after his apparent death. Oooops.
All this, including interviews with Tim Burton, and tons of extra behind the scenes footage are included in Jon Schnepp’s upcoming documentary. A project he originally started via Kickstarter, Schnepp showed us 20 minutes of unedited footage from his unfinished film and teased that hopefully it will be out some time next year. The footage showed a lot of great special effects rehearsals that focused mainly on putting together the concepts for the suit. The clip even featured some of the interviews with Burton himself, wherein he wrapped up the overall travesty of this project that never was in a simple phrase…”It was like picking apart the carcass before it was even dead yet…”.
By Leo Giannopolous.
