2. Superman Lives
Of all of the Superman films that never made it out of production hell, Superman Lives is the most infamous. It would have been directed by Tim Burton, written by Kevin Smith, and starred Nicolas Cage as Superman. Before we continue, I'll let all of that sink in... Still with me? Good. Because this one's a wild one. Kevin Smith pitched a story to producer Jon Peters, who had been struggling to get another Superman film, Superman Reborn, off the ground for several years. Smith was hired to rewrite the script written by Gregory Poirier, and was given several conditions from Peters: Superman was to wear an all-black suit (saying that the traditional outfit looked "too faggy"), and was not allowed to fly because he "would look like an overgrown Boy Scout." Peters also demanded that Superman fight a giant spider for the film's climactic battle, and wanted Brianiac to fight polar bears outside of the Fortress of Solitude (Really. I couldn't make this stuff up). Due to the tremendous success of the Star Wars trilogy, Peters insisted that Brianiac have a robotic assistant named L-Ron, who he called "a gay R2-D2 with attitude," and Lex Luthor was given a space dog companion. According to Peters, "Chewie's cuddly, man. You could make a toy out of him, so you've got to give me a dog." Smith's draft featured Brainiac sending Doomsday to kill Superman, and blocking out the sun to make Superman powerless. Brainiac then teamed up with Lex Luthor before Superman was resurrected by a Kryptonian robot, the Eradicator. The powerless, resurrected Superman was sheathed in armor from the Eradicator, until his powers were restored. Smith is the one who suggested Tim Burton as director, and originally wanted Ben Affleck in the titular role. Instead, Peters chose Cage because "he could convince audiences that he came from outer space." Other casting choices included Courtney Cox as Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey or Jack Nicholson as Lex Luthor, Tim Allen or Jim Carrey as Brainiac, and Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen. Michael Keaton was also involved, but when asked if he would be reprising his role as Batman, simply stated, "not exactly." Filming was set to begin in early 1998. When Burton came on board, he hired Wesley Strick (Arachnophobia, Cape Fear) to rewrite Smith's script, which had become a mess of gimmicks and toy commercials. Strick did a complete rewrite, and incorporated another of Peters' ideas: amalgamating Lex and Brainiac into the "mega-villain" Lexiac. At this point in production, Peters was bringing children in to the studios to "rate drawings on the wall as if they were evaluating toy possibilities," according to art designer Sylvain Despretz. Warner Bros. eventually deemed the project too expensive, and asked for more rewrites. They put the film on hold in April 1998, and Tim Burton left in favor of directing Sleepy Hollow. $30 million had been spent on the project, and there was absolutely nothing to show for it. Production woes, rewrites, and director changes continued for several years before JJ Abrams was brought on board in 2002 to pen Superman: Flyby. At one point, Peters even offered the role of Superman to Will Smith, who turned it down over ethnicity concerns. Needless to say, we're lucky this film never got made. Due to Peters' insistence on focusing on the future toy line, and his strict, ridiculous story demands, the production of this film has gone down as one of the most jaw-dropping stories in cinema history. Jon Schnepp, best known for directing and producing animated shows like Metalocalypse and The Venture Bros., launched a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, and will use the money to make a documentary about the story of Superman Lives' doomed production. You can check out that Kickstarter page
here.