What If...Kevin Smith's Superman Movie Got Made

10. Tim Burton Directs

Tim Burton
Disney

After Robert Rodriguez had to turn it down, Smith suggested Tim Burton to direct, andafter his success on Batman and Batman Returns, one can imagine that at the time, in a pre-Nolan world, he seemed like a pretty strong choice. He would've brought the necessary visual flair to the piece, though given how he flagrantly changed elements of Batman's mythos, there would definitely have been concerns that he would have done the same with Supes.

Burton signed on with an absurdly generous "pay or play" clause of $5m, meaning he was paid that amount regardless of whether the film was made or not. The release was set for Summer 1998, the shooting locations had been set, but filming dates kept being pushed back by the studio, and a writer was eventually called in to re-write Smith's script - which had already been re-written by someone else - to fit a $100m budget as opposed to the $190 it was previously set for.

Burton went on to direct Sleepy Hollow instead amid all the downtime while still collecting his $5m fee, though admitting the experience was one of the worst of his life.

At this point Superman Lives had spent $30m with no product even in sight, and after Martin Campbell, Oliver Stone and even the likes of Michael Bay and Brett Ratner passed on directing the new version, it basically faded into obscurity. Still, Burton would have been an interesting choice all the same.

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