Tim Burton’s Failed Superman Adaptation, SUPERMAN LIVES

The Mike · Oct 30, 2010

As you may or may not know, in the late 90s, Tim Burton was hired to direct a new Superman movie. Entitled Superman Lives, the project was set to star Nicolas Cage as The Man of Steel. Warner Bros. reportedly spent over $50 million on the movie and then dumped it without ever shooting a single frame. Visual Effects artist Steve Johnson has now posted costume sculpts from the failed project. In Jake Rossen’s enjoyable book Superman vs. Hollywood, Kevin Smith (who was brought on to write Superman before Tim Burton was hired and has this fantastic anecdote about producer Jon Peters) joked, “Maybe [Burton] wanted to see Superman in all black. With scissors for hands.” It turns out that Smith wasn’t that far off. When Warner execs were reportedly horrified saw screen tests of Cage in the finished costume. After seeing these images, I think you’ll understand why. Images are from Steve Johnson’s Facebook page via CBM. And for a comprehensive explanation of how Superman Lives died, I once again highly recommend picking up Superman vs. Hollywood, which is a fantastic behind-the-scenes history of Superman’s TV and film adaptations

Rest of the pics of this abomination here:
https://www.collider.com/2010/10/29/superman-lives-costume-image-tim-burton-nicolas-cage/

Biojex · Oct 30, 2010

Yikes....Not Impressive.

intothevoid · Oct 30, 2010

I don't know whether to laugh or cry - that is beyond pathetic

ILUVSkinner · Oct 30, 2010

That is horrible!

Actually I am very happy that was never made as I hated the Tim Burton Batman films. I only watched them for Michael Gough and because Michael Keaton was a good Batman. Heck, they were aweful. The newer films are over-hyped but atleast they capture some of Batman's spirit.

**16k** · Oct 30, 2010

intothevoid said:
I don't know whether to laugh or cry - that is beyond pathetic

Easy choice! Cry! That's what I'm doing already! :monkey2

karamazov80 · Oct 30, 2010

I have no idea what the Warner execs thought they were going to get with Tim Burton. He isn't exactly a conventional film-maker. I don't blame Burton for any of this, because this is the kind of wacky ____ he does. He made Batman a willful murderer for Christ sake.

DiFabio · Oct 30, 2010

ILUVSkinner said:
That is horrible!

Actually I am very happy that was never made as I hated the Tim Burton Batman films. I only watched them for Michael Gough and because Michael Keaton was a good Batman. Heck, they were aweful. The newer films are over-hyped but atleast they capture some of Batman's spirit.

Come on now, I think his Batman films remain very much in the spirit of Batman. Returns starts to veer off into Burton world but it's still not awful, awful.

This though, this isn't Superman at all. That suit, the spiders, the aliens. It's just some weird crap. I'm glad this never came to be. It looked like crap.

Superman doesn't wear black. Period.

Kamandi · Oct 30, 2010

So the new theme song was going to be Abba's "Dancing Queen"?

Natrix · Oct 30, 2010

DiFabio said:
Superman doesn't wear black. Period.

The Ween · Oct 30, 2010

That's a pretty cool shirt in that second pic, but Tim Burton directing Superman and Cage playing him would've been a complete FAIL!

plasmid303 · Oct 30, 2010

As ridiculous as Burton's Superman looks, I do somewhat admire it for being so experimental. The 90's were crazy.

Voorhees27 · Oct 30, 2010

Jeez 50 mill and a pulled plug? It must be nice being multi billionaires.

YoNoSe · Oct 30, 2010

You could put Nic Cage in the most perfect Superman suit ever made and it would still look terrible.

Kal-El · Oct 30, 2010

Superman Returns doesn't seem so bad now.

SwedishHeat · Oct 30, 2010

I notice they kept the more rounded S shield.

And even that didn't go over well.

Kamandi · Oct 30, 2010

Voorhees27 said:
Jeez 50 mill and a pulled plug? It must be nice being multi billionaires.

The costs for the various aborted Superman efforts were rolled into the cost of Superman Returns, explaining in part the high price tag for Singer's film.

MANDO · Oct 30, 2010

karamazov80 said:
I have no idea what the Warner execs thought they were going to get with Tim Burton. He isn't exactly a conventional film-maker. I don't blame Burton for any of this, because this is the kind of wacky ____ he does. He made Batman a willful murderer for Christ sake.

Although they reportedly didn't get along with eachother, both Peters and Burton made WB a boatload of cash with Batman in '89. From a paper-pushing studio exec. standpoint it makes perfect financial sense.

There was a special on Superman that comes on the history channel once in a while and in it they show some of the conceptual drawings and stuff for this movie. Superman in some kind of techno armor, like that pink suit, and one where he's encased in some bio-mechanical machine. Pretty bizarre stuff.

Voorhees27 · Oct 30, 2010

Kamandi said:
The costs for the various aborted Superman efforts were rolled into the cost of Superman Returns, explaining in part the high price tag for Singer's film.

Ah, well that makes more sense then.

risingstar · Oct 30, 2010

Kal-El said:
Superman Returns doesn't seem so bad now.

That's impossible.

:thud:

2ndname · Oct 31, 2010

Wow, they are trying to hard right there. Finding balance between comic and the real world is a tough one but they just went off the grid.

Tim Burton’s Failed Superman Adaptation, SUPERMAN LIVES

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