1. Superman Lives
What Was It: Thanks to Kevin Smith, most people are probably aware of this project. In the mid-90s, Warner Brothers had plans to revive the Superman franchise. Based on the Death of Superman storyline from the early 90s, Warner Brothers and producer Jon Peters brought on Kevin Smith to write a screenplay. Below is Smith's account of it from An Evening With Kevin Smith, which followed him around at speaking events: According to Smith, Peters had three rules when they first started meeting to discuss the project: 1. Superman can't fly. 2. Superman can't wear the costume (because, according to Peters, the costume is "too faggy"). 3. Superman has to fight a giant spider in the third act. There were other ludicrous suggestions as well. Peters felt Sean Penn would make the perfect Superman because in Dead Man Walking, he had the look of a caged animal and a vicious killer. He also insisted on giving Brainiac a gay robot sidekick and a cuddly alien pet and wanted a scene where Brainiac fights polar bears outside the Fortress of Solitude. Despite all the crazy restrictions, Smith managed to produce a screenplay that wasn't bad (and credit to Nicolas Cage, who fought to make sure the costume appeared in the film after all). Both Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage signed on to the project based on that script, although Burton wanted his own writers to rewrite the script. The rewrites involved Brainiac and Lex Luthor merging into a single entity (called Luthiac in one draft, Lexiac in another). Superman's symbol has long been established in many versions as the El family crest and beginning in Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright was described as the Kryptonian symbol for hope. But in this script, the S stands for science, because that was Jor-El's passion. Brainiac and Luthor also apparently are fans of bad wisecracks, because they use them at every opportunity.
What Happened: Again, Batman & Robin happened. After the devastating failure of that movie, it was decided that Superman Lives may be pushing the envelope, so the project was scrapped. For the better, it seems, given what we've seen of it. Jon Schnepp is working on a documentary titled The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?, so we'll all be able to see what he uncovers about the project.