If you think the current slate of superhero movies that are due to come out across the next decade is overwhelming, just remember that it could've been a lot worse. For all the comic book adaptations that Hollywood has in the works, there's been something like a dozen more that never actually made it into production. And for the most part, that's a good thing. Warner Bros. have wrestled with the right way to bring Superman back to the big screen for decades. After totally tanking the original, acclaimed Christopher Reeve-starring series there were projects involving Tim Burton and Kevin Smith, Bryan Singer's love letter to the Reeve films in Superman Returns, before settling on Man Of Steel. Somewhere in the hinterlands between all those unmade and underwhelming films, there is a Superman film so strange, so insane, so non-traditional and so poorly written that you will scarcely believe it was in pre-production for the better part of a decade. Krypton all in one piece? Obviously. Jude Law as Clark Kent? Makes sense. Lex Luthor as an alien? Yeah, that seems like a good idea. Here are ten things you need to know about J.J. Abrams' Superman: Flyby. And it's not pretty.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
