Heres our run through of the Superman projects that couldnt quite fly their way out of development hell…
In the early 1990s, talks were well underway for a fifth film in the Christopher Reeve Superman saga.
Before long, toy companies were insisting on seeing scripts before heading to big toy-based industry events.
Scriptwriting under such stipulations is surely never easy, but the resultant screenplay certainly sounds interesting.
The new Superman grows up very quickly, and on go the heroics.
It doesnt sound too similar to us, but thats how it went down.
He later described Poiriers draft as like the Batman TV show version of a Superman movie; very campy.
Superman Livesis the stuff of what-if cinematic legend.
Its out this July, folks.Weve discussedSuperman Livesin detail before, too.
If youre at work, or dont fancy watching a video right now, heres our summary.
Smith was in a meeting at Warner Bros. where they began talking about theirSuperman Rebornscript.
Eventually, he landed the gig of writing a new Superman script.
No flying, and no blue suit, were the first two.
Somehow, Smith persevered with this project as long as he was allowed to.
Jason Mewes as Jimmy Olsen.
Said Smith: the studio was happy with what I was doing.
So who is Warner Bros going back to?
The guy who madeClerks, or the guy who made them half a billion dollars onBatman?
So,Superman Liveslived on, but with Kevin Smith sadly out of the picture.
Producer Peters was in agreement, stating that Cage would convince audiences that he came from space.
In Cages words, he was set to re-conceive the character.
Who else would have been involved?
Not exactly, in his words).
The project entered pre-production in 1997, and Strick took to the task of rejigging the script.
Stricks rewrite saw Supes reimagined as an existentialist, discussing his out-of-place positioning on Earth.
Stricks script also saw Brainiac and Lex Luthor combine into a schizo/scary mega-villain called Lexiac.
I basically wasted a year.
Well keep this one brief, seeing as theres a decent chance you know the story already.
This is, of course, the early 21st century idea to reboot Bats and Supes in one swoop.
Albeit one that set the internet aflutter as a result.
Naturally, they team up to stop Lexs schemes instead.
An interesting choice for sure, but unlikely to be one who will ever get the chance again.
Heres one that was actually floating around beforeAsylum(until that idea grabbed Warner Bros attention).
Are you starting to get the impression that Warners werent sure what they wanted at this stage?
Slightly changed origin beats would play out.
Lois was obsessed with stopping Lex Luthor, here a government agent obsessed with UFOs.
When Superman reveals himself to the world, a bunch of evil Kryptonians head to Earth and kill him.
At the end, he would have flown off to Krypton in a spaceship.
Hardly unknowns, even if theyre not the biggest stars in showbiz.
The problem, apparently, was a contract that involved a lot of sequel stipulations.
Pride before a fall there, anyone?
I could probably have bought my own fleet of jets or my own island.
I dont need it, Walker famously said).
Ashton Kutcher and David Boreanaz couldnt be tempted either.
At some point, Brandon Routh auditioned for this project too (see above).
Interesting choices, both.
Ultimately, it seems like no-one could agree.
McG quit, and Warner Bros refused Abrams suggestion of returning and directing his own script.
They brought in Bryan Singer instead, leading directly toSuperman Returns.
We wrote in much more detail aboutSuperman: Flybyright here.
And finally, heres another that you will have seen if you read our Batman article.
This time they had a few other heroes in mind, too.
Cotrona, known best these days as Flint fromG.I.
George Miller ofMad Maxfame was set to direct.
Why didnt Cotrona get the chance to play Superman in the end?
If youre after some further reading, incidentally, do dig out the bookSuperman Vs Hollywood.
Its a fascinating read, that charts the development of Superman on the big screen over many decades.
