10 Unmade Comic Book Movies That Could Have Been Awesome
At the very least, better than Catwoman and Jonah Hex.
Thanks in part to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's industry-changing concept of interconnected movies, the comic book genre increasingly finds itself in a constant state of flux. As rival studios scramble to catch up and cross their fingers for a hit movie that launches the next blockbuster franchise, plenty of potential projects get left by the wayside.
Think about it; did anybody really think at the time that Man of Steel would quickly snowball into the entire DCEU? Fantastic Four 2 was supposed to come out this summer, and we all know how that turned out.
The Amazing Spider-Man 3 had a release date locked in for last year, but instead we now have Tom Holland establishing the wall-crawler as an integral part of the MCU. Even the Venom spin-off that has been spoken about on-and-off for a decade comes out next year and has no less a talent than Tom Hardy in the lead role.
With the battle for supremacy at the box office getting tougher than ever, it often seems that the studios are unwilling to take risks so they don't alienate either critics or audiences and harm their profit margins in the process.
History has shown that some of the most interesting superhero projects never even make it past the development stage in favour of the same old sh*t, which is a summation of a larger problem within the industry as a whole regardless of genre.
10. Superman: Flyby
After spending over a decade attempting to reboot the Big Blue Boy Scout without success, Warner Bros. greenlit a new script from relative unknown JJ Abrams in 2002. While the subtitle 'Flyby' is awful, from the information available it certainly sounds like the most interesting abandoned Superman project.
Ignoring the terrifying thought of Brett Ratner or McG directing, Superman: Flyby sounds so crazy that it may have actually worked. With Krypton ravaged by civil war (but not destroyed), Jor-El sends his son to Earth to fulfil an ancient prophecy where he is eventually discovered by villain Ty-Zor and his minions (who have giant mech suits and know kung-fu), and must battle them and Lex Luthor (who is either an alien-obsessed government hack or a Kryptonian sleeper agent depending on which draft you read).
As nuts as that sounds, Flyby would have been backed by one hell of a cast. A 20 year-old Henry Cavill was among those tested for Superman, Christopher Walken was in negotiations for Perry White, Anthony Hopkins and Shia LaBeouf were wanted for Jor-El and Jimmy Olsen respectively, Joel Edgerton wanted to play Ty-Zor and Robert Downey Jr. was confirmed as Lex Luthor.
Superman Returns got a lukewarm reception from fans for not taking enough risks, and even the movie's best set-piece (the airplane rescue), originally came from Abrams' script. Perhaps completely reinventing the character for modern audiences was the right idea all along, and one that definitely worked for Batman just a few years later.