The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?
(2015)
Documentary
Directed By: Jon Schnepp
If someone approached you today and asked you how badly
you'd want to see a Superman movie starring Nic Cage and directed by Tim
Burton, you'd probably think this guy was high on mushrooms but back in 1998
this was on the path to becoming reality. Jon Peters, who produced the Burton Batman films, acquired the rights to
Superman when Warner Bros. wasn't paying attention and went to work putting
together his dream picture, and what a wild vision he had. This new documentary
from writer/director Jon Schnepp takes a much deeper look into why and how this
movie was going to happen and also, why it ultimately would die. Superhero fan
or not, this flick will hook you right from the beginning and keep you clinging
to the screen for more information as to why this insane film never was made.
When Jon Peters acquired the rights for Superman he had an
idea to make a film with the iconic hero like no one had ever seen before. He
want to do away with the classic Chris Reeve's, clean-cut Superman and put him
into a new, more modern light that would give him more grit and more
personality. To do this he decided to go with the popular comic, The Death of
Superman, the story in which Superman is actually killed by Doomsday. This was
going to turn heads, much like Keaton's Batman and Peter's had one choice for
the director's and that was to bring back Tim Burton. Peter's was set on Nic
Cage for Superman and they had a script penned by Kevin Smith, and that's when
the problems began.
Jon Schnepp has done an incredible job bringing together a
massive amount of lost and unknown information about this film that the general
public had never known. Tracking down and interviewing the top people involved
with this film really made you feel what went into this. Kevin Smith is always an
infectious speaker and he has no reservations about exposing small known
details and secrets. Getting to hear him rant about a Superman movie that he
actually got to write and ultimately get canned from is a wonderful nerd treat.
He also interviews legendary film maker Tim Burton and just hearing his ideas
and desire to make this film leaves you wishing it would have all come to
fruition. He would have done something so massively different and unique it
would have been historic no matter how good or bad it was.
As wonderful as it is as a film nerd to watch Schnepp
interview all of these incredible filmmakers and producers about a lost
Superman movie, the best information comes from the smaller guys. The ones
tapped for rewrites, the people making the new suits, and the large group of
artists crafting storyboards and concept arts for the film. Through his first
hand interviews we really get an idea of what they wanted from this movie as
well as just how big of a mess it all really was. Although they had a ton of
crazy ideas, they never really had a coherent plan of how to execute them and
they were constantly receiving conflicting ideas from different higher ups.
As I mentioned before, you don't have to be a superhero fan
to enjoy this film. This documentary should appeal to all film nerds because it
is an incredible look into the behind the scenes drama of big budget studio
movies that we, as fans, never really get a glimpse of. So often we hear one
day about a movie getting made and then months, or years down the line it just
gets scrapped and we are just forced to deal with it. This film gives us an
idea of why and how these things happen and how much compromise has to be made
when working in the big studio world.
If you are a superhero fan, and especially if you are a
Superman fan, this documentary is a dream come true. We finally get some
closure on the infamous film that would never be. Not only that, but we get to
see the incredible concept arts and ideas that were going to be implemented in
this fresh take. We get to see incredible test footage of all the different
suits that Nic cage was going to wear throughout the film as well as his
unconventional take on Clark Kent. It was all going to be out of this world and
completely different than anything we had ever seen before. It is no surprise
they went traditional with Superman
Returns when this movie was going to be so weird. It's hard to say if the
movie would have been any good but I feel it definitely would have been
historic. The way they had wanted to make it they would have created something
so different and unique that no matter how good or bad it was, it would have
been talked about for decades to come.
As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches
Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later
No comments:
Post a Comment