After Tim Burton was done putting his quirky stamp on the Batman franchise, WB turned to him to revive another dormant DC Comics franchise in Superman Lives. Loosely based on The Death Of Superman comic book storyline, where the Man of Steel is killed by the genetically pumped-up monster known as Doomsday, the movie was set to ignore the Christopher Reeves series completely by casting certified crazy-man Nicolas Cage as the Last Son of Krypton. Almost every comic book fan knows this story all too well. Kevin Smith was approached to write the script for the project and has told fans first-hand on his various An Evening With interviews about the horrific experience. Most fans consider Smiths script to have been the best of the polished treatments which was subsequently whittled down and, frankly, convoluted in subsequent rewrites by other contributors (the choice to merge Brainiac and Lex Luthor, for instance, was especially poorly received by fans). Its hard to know exactly how Burtons take on Superman would have turned out given that budget constraints were a major reason the film never made it in front of cameras.
Jesse Gumbarge is editor and chief blogger at JarvisCity.com - He loves old-school horror films and starting pointless debates. You can reach out at: JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com
