Its title conjures images of the Man of Steel soaring past the LexCorp building and gunning Luthor down with an Uzi, but JJ Abramss script for Superman: Flyby painted a more traditional picture of the superhero. While the cape, spandex and trademark S would have remained, Flybys screenplay reimagined the Superman universe as a place where the planet Krypton remained intact and Lex Luthor is a government agent with an unhealthy obsession with UFO phenomena. The story would have seen an infant Kal-El exiled to Earth after a fierce civil war engulfed his home planet. There, he is adopted by Ma and Pa Kent and becomes romantically involved with a certain Daily Planet reporter. Some of this will surely sound familiar. Abrams cherrypicked bits and pieces from Supermans origin, while dropping in a few ideas of his own. A group of rogue Kryptonians a la Superman II would have been our villains and, as would have been the case with Superman Lives, the script called for the Man of Steel to fall in battle and later return from the dead. Brett Ratner joined the project as director in 2002 and Josh Hartnett, Jude Law, Paul Walker and Brendan Fraser are said to have been approached for the title role - its a safe bet to assume that at least one of that bunch is wondering how their career might have panned out if things had turned out differently. Ratner left the project the following year citing casting delays as the reason for his exit, and was replaced by McG, but red tape continued to prevent Flyby from getting off the ground. McG made way for Bryan Singer in 2004 and the project gradually morphed into the lukewarmly-received Superman Returns.
