It might be hard to believe, but it has been 30 years since there was a planned Superman reboot movie that would have been extremely controversial. This was way back in 1996, two years after Kevin Smith made Clerks and one year after Mallrats, which was a commercial disappointment that was ahead of its time. It was also four years after Tim Burton made Batman Returns, his second Batman release, which proved that superheroes could exist in Hollywood films with a big budget in a mainstream blockbuster. These two filmmakers were supposed to team up for Superman Lives, and it was going to be weird.
Here is a look at the Superman reboot that had some of the most terrible rules mandated by the studio, and how it almost beat Superman: Man of Tomorrow in introducing a legacy villain into movies.
Kevin Smith Was Supposed to Write a Superman Movie
Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.
In 1992, two years before Kevin Smith released Clerks, DC Comics made history by releasing its The Death of Superman storyline. This comic book broke sales records for DC, and it made Warner Bros. consider adapting it into a film. The studio execs had two great ideas. They wanted to bring in comic book fan Kevin Smith to write the script and sign Batman director Tim Burton to make the movie.
Smith has spoken about the script and the plans for it in the years since, and what he said made it seem fortunate that Superman Lives was never made. That is added to the fact that Tim Burton wanted Nicolas Cage to star as Clark Kent/Superman, which makes almost no sense when looking back at the film’s planning. However, what made even less sense were the rules that Warner Bros. had for Smith when he was writing the script.
In the 2015 documentary, The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened?, the story of this infamous film was unveiled. According to Smith, producer Jon Peters had some demands for the script (which Peters denied, saying when he appeared in the documentary, while also insulting Smith by calling him an amateur screenwriter). Smith said Peters told him that Superman couldn’t have his normal red and blue suit with the “S” symbol, he couldn’t fly in the movie, and he had to fight a giant spider in the third act. Smith repeated this same story in his DVD, An Evening With Kevin Smith.
While Jon Peters denies these claims, it’s interesting to know that he also produced Will Smith’s Wild Wild West. That film, a colossal box office failure, had a giant mechanical spider in the third act. On top of that, Neil Gaiman once said Peters wanted to make an adaptation of Sandman, but he wanted to add giant spiders to that as well.
Kevin Smith & Tim Burton’s Superman Would Have Beat Man of Tomorrow to the Punch
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
There was another alleged Jon Peters demand that seems almost ridiculous. According to Kevin Smith, Peters also wanted the villain Brainiac to fight a large polar bear because Peters said, “polar bears are the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom.” It still remains curious why Peters wanted to have Superman fight a polar bear when Brainiac was the main villain.
However, that’s another reason why fans should be happy Superman Lives was never made. While it was going to focus on the return of Superman from the dead, it wanted to bring Brainiac to the big screen for the first time. Now, 30 years later, James Gunn is working on his Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, and is bringing Brainiac to the big screen for the first time in history. This huge moment might not feel as special if he had already been in a movie fighting a polar bear.
On a side note, Kevin Smith has said it was a “treat” to see Nicolas Cage show up as Superman in The Flash during a scene where that film’s version of the Flash saw versions of characters from all over the multiverse. While Kevin Smith and Tim Burton’s Superman Lives was never made, it seems that, at least in one multiversal world, their vision came to fruition
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