10 Things You Need To Know About Tim Burton's Superman Lives
2. The Producer Insisted On A Giant Spider
Peters was far from done with his list of demands. Whilst Burton's and Gilroy's eventual drafts threw out a lot of what Kevin Smith had put in his script at the behest of the producer, they were still there for a little while, expected to be integral parts of Superman Lives. He said there needed to be an action beat every ten pages, and some of his ideas were...interesting.
For one, Peters decided that a visit to Superman's Arctic base the Fortress Of Solitude needed a fight scene. His HQ wouldn't be totally undefended, would it? So when Braniac and L-Ron show up to find the supposedly deceased Superman, they have to fight a couple of polar bears who, in Peters' opinion, were the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom.
Also, there needed to be a bit where Superman fought a giant spider because, in Peters' opinion, they were the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom.
Smith wrote the scene with the monster in question, apparently meant to recall King Kong as a a "Thanagarian Snare Beast".
Fun note: Jon Peters later produced Wild Wild West. Whose climactic scene involves...a giant spider.