It may be hard to believe, but once upon a time Nicolas Cage was set to play the Man of Steel in what would have been destined to be one of the most bizarre takes on Superman to ever see the light of day. Except it didn't. Despite being directed by Tim Burton and with a screenplay by Kevin Smith, the '90s "Superman Lives" never came alive.
Following in the tradition of recent "lost movie" documentaries like Jodorowskys's "Dune" and Roger Corman's "Fantastic Four" film, a new documentary titled "The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?" has its first trailer and with it some fascinating glimpses of what could have been.
First, of course, is the choice of Nic Cage as Clark Kent and Superman. Cage doesn't have the best film track record, and is known for coming off a little crazy in most of his films. That might have been what Burton was looking for, as it is stated in the trailer by multiple people that Burton wanted the film to focus on the "alien" side of Superman, honing in on the idea of an outsider attempting to fit in on Earth. Burton himself (who rebooted the Batman film franchise with great success) said he often felt like an "alien" himself and that many people do, thus making the otherworldly figure of Superman much more relatable.
Tons of interesting tidbits are dropped in the nearly three-minute trailer: a cameo appearance from Burton's Batman, Braniac as the main villain, an appearance from Doomsday and Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen.
Screenrant writes the plot of the film would have followed Superman in a battle against Braniac, who is using Doomsday to destroy Superman. Superman is nearly killed and retreats to the Fortress of Solitude, where he regenerates thanks to help from the residual energy of his parents. He then confronts a new villain by the name of Lexiac, a fusion of Braniac and Lex Luthor.
Also of interest is the new take on the iconic Superman costume, an electric-looking "regenerative" suit. There is tons of behind-the-scenes footage of Cage parading around in his costume and plenty of concept art shown in the trailer as well.
Sadly, that's really all there is. The movie never started filming, and after a long production period was put on permanent hold.
The documentary itself was created via crowdsourcing, where it raised more than $115,000 last year to create the film. It is currently in a second crowdsourcing campaign right now and looking to raise an additional $85,000 to complete the film, as the project ran over budget. The final, finished documentary doesn't yet have a release date because of this, but judging from the trailer a good chunk of the work is already finished. Expect to learn even more about the Superman that might have been when the full documentary eventually is released.
