14. He Was Paid $20 Million For Not Playing Superman
Nicolas Cage was slated to star in the troubled and, ultimately cancelled, Superman Lives in the mid-1990's. Kevin Smith wrote the first draft and Tim Burton was slated to direct but things quickly went south on the project. Producer John Peters, for example, wanted to have Superman wear an all-black suit. Oh, and he couldn't fly. And he had to battle a giant spider in the third act. Seriously, tip of the iceberg. Cage as Superman seemed like a logical choice at the time, fresh from a string of critically acclaimed roles such as his Academy Award winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas. Cage, a huge Superman fan, signed on to the project. He wanted to 'flip the character upside down'. For $20 million. Not so unreasonable, you might say. Superman is a franchise and the film would obviously have made a gazillion dollars at the box-office. So yeah, $20 million, no problem. Except that Cage signed a 'pay or play' deal, meaning he would be paid whether the film got made or not. It didn't, and Cage received a heft cheque for doing absolutely nothing.
