It has become something of a joke tossed around movie fan campfires as a sort of boogie man story, but at one time, Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage wanted to make a Superman movie called Superman Lives based on a script written by Kevin Smith.
Let that sink in a bit. The Tim Burton part is kind of understandable, not only because of his two Batman films but also because this happened at a time when Tim Burton was not yet a super hack who only made billion dollar Disney products starring Johnny Depp.
But trying to imagine Nicolas Cage as Superman takes a special kind of imagination -- one not opposed to inflicting self-punishment and misery. Nicolas Cage is an actor with a very great, but also very narrow talent set. He's quite good in some roles and quite awful in others. The problem (or secret greatness) is that no one, especially not Cage himself, seems to be aware of this limitation.
So obviously Nicolas Cage had no objections to a Nicolas Cage Superman. He loves the character, even going so far as to name his son Kal-El, which is actually Swahili for "Give that little nerd a wedgie, forthwith." No one was brave enough to tell Nicolas Cage how horrible he'd be as Superman, so the film almost happened.
Then there's Kevin Smith. I feel as though just by invoking his name, I've said everything I need to say about why he should not be writing a Superman movie.
This atrocity almost came to pass, but sadly fell apart in development. Now, Metalocalypse director Jon Schnepp has started a Kickstarter campaign to make a documentary exploring every facet of Superman Lives.
As the director himself explains:
"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."
So there you have it. We will never see Nicolas Cage in Superman Lives, but at least this will give us a chance to understand what we missed. Schnepp's documentary intends to "cover everything ever made for this film, from interviewing as many people as [he] can who were involved, to including actually recreating scenes from the script!!!" This sounds about as close as we'll ever get to the madness that almost was Superman Lives. If that sounds good to you, donate and make it happen.
