True Story Of The Best Superman Movies Never Made

In the midst of production nightmares, with Warner Bros. looking to change just too much about Smith's movie, the legendary producer left the project. After being offered to multiple directors, Tim Burton was eventually hired to helm the movie after his work on Batman.

There were two major decisions made that would ultimately ensure that there was nothing left of Kevin Smith's vision in the project. The first was the casting of Nicholas Cage in the titular role, not even close to the actor the part had been specifically written for, and the second was Tim Burton's ordering a complete rewrite of the script by Batman Returns writer, Wesley Strick.

There were further rewrites still, this time by Dan Gilroy, who penned The Bourne Legacy and Kong: Skull Island many years later, before the whole thing ultimately fell apart. Concerns over the script and the budget, particularly at a time when Warner Bros. had seen some disappointments at the box office, were what led to the movie's cancellation.

Reports are unclear as to how final the news of the movie's halt in production was, but Tim Burton moved on to direct Sleepy Hollow with Christopher Walken, ironically the man once touted to play Brainiac in the film, and Cage left live-action Superman behind completely. This was the final curtain on one of the more bizarre developmental hells in Hollywood memory.