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Superman Lives (AKA Superman Reborn)

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:34 am
by Ghost
I did mention this movie to other people here on the forum.

Well I wanted to discuss this with other members.

Back in the 1990's Warner Brothers was suppose to produce a movie titled "Superman Reborn" but then was later renamed "Superman Lives"
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This movie was canceled before it managed to get into theaters which I think was a good thing. This movie was destined to fail, reason being that it was put into the hands of truly evil people in Hollywood. This project shows exactly how capable Hollywood is at ruining our beloved franchises.

Hollywood: Killing Franchises, One movie at a time. :d evil:

So when this movie was in early development Kevin Smith was assigned to write the script. Smith is the man behind movies such as: Clerks, Clerks 2, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and Chasing Amy.

Smith works on small, but funny comedy movies. The only reason I could think as to why he was assigned to write this is because he knows a lot about comics. He did make a video talking about his experience working on this, which can be found here.

In the video Smith talks about the film's producer John Peters. This man, I think would have ultimately lead to film's downfall. When he first met with Smith he told him:
1) I don't want to see him in that suit.
2) I don't want to see him fly.
3) He has to fight a giant spider in the 3rd act. :confused:

Does this sound like a good movie so far?

Later on Tim Burton was assigned to direct the film and Nicolas Cage to play the Man of Steel. :sick:

Kevin Smith then later was kicked off and eventually the film was canceled. Now, a Superman movie with Nicolas Cage fighting a giant spider? Does that sound enjoyable?

Well it gets worse for die hard Superman fans. Take a look at the design they made for the suit in the movie.
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Truly, truly, horrific. This costume makes no sense at all.

Now, also another thing. I recently found a copy of the film's script. I haven't looked at it yet, I'm not expecting it to be good for obvious reasons but I can't say for sure. Reason being that I haven't looked at it, but here it is.

Going back now to the films producer John Peters. Another example of what kind of man this guy is. The year after Kevin Smith met this man, he produced a movie.

This movie was called:
The Wild, Wild, West
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Notice the Giant spider on the front? Kevin Smith mentioned later in his video that when he saw this horrific film, he mentioned a giant spider showing up all of a sudden. So clearly this film was the work of John Peters. It was also the worse movie Will Smith has ever been in.

Truly, Hollywood is evil. :d evil:

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:45 am
by Alittleacorn
Only one phrase can describe much a movie...

OH MAN! OH GAWD! HOLLYWOOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO OUR BEAUTIFUL FRANCHISES!? T.T

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:15 am
by diehard67
well I liked wild wild west, I have to admit that that superman costume is kinda cool lookin but not for superman at all, just doesn't work.

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:30 am
by InsaneAstroBoyLover
"diehard67" wrote:I have to admit that that superman costume is kinda cool lookin but not for superman at all, just doesn't work.


I have to agree with you on that. It's just not Superman.

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:22 am
by jeffbert
I watched the WWW as a kid, & occasionally borrow the DVDs from NF, so while I did not like some of the film's elements, I still enjoyed it. :p I think it was in the same 'spirit' as the show, though it was a bit extreme with the giant tarantula mecha. I thought the villain was just hilarious! :D

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:27 am
by Ghost
"jeffbert" wrote:I watched the WWW as a kid, & occasionally borrow the DVDs from NF, so while I did not like some of the film's elements, I still enjoyed it. :p I think it was in the same 'spirit' as the show, though it was a bit extreme with the giant tarantula mecha. I thought the villain was just hilarious! :D


I never saw the TV show I will admit, but I've heard that it was a true classic unlike the film. I did see the movie years ago and I thought it was quite bad. I do remember the spider and I just think it's funny that John Peters still wanted his giant spider in a movie. Couldn't do it in Superman, so he does it in WWW. :lol:

One of the reasons why he wanted a giant spider was because he kept saying "They're the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom."

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:29 am
by Astro Boy2866
Could you post the YouTube link of Nicholas Cage talking about that movie? I remember listening to some of it and it was hilarious.

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:39 am
by jeffbert
"Ghost" wrote:One of the reasons why he wanted a giant spider was because he kept saying "They're the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom."

WWW often featured mechanical devices that were beyond the then current technology; those and other scientific things that may have been theoretically fantastic even by modern standards. Thus, a giant mechanical steam powered tarantula, though much larger than anything in the series, was at least otherwise consistent with its predecessors. There was an episode in which West was shrunken to about 6 inches tall, & menaced by a real tarantula (which may have been influenced by LAND OF THE GIANTS), & this may have influenced the film.

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:59 am
by Ghost
Back to the topic I did find out a little bit of more info on "Superman Lives."

Apparently, when Kevin Smith got kicked off the project they had no script to the movie. Nick Cage was under contract to play Superman and Tim Burton was also under contract. I don't know the details of the contracts, but Tim Burton's basically said that no matter what Burton got paid his directing fee.

With Cage I'm not too sure if this is fact. This is only a rumor. The main reason why the movie was canceled was because Burton was impatient and didn't feel like waiting for a new script to be written. So the movie was canceled as a result.

There is also another rumor that because Nicolas Cage was under contract at the time, he was bailed out of the contract. He supposedly was paid 20 Million Dollars because of this, but then again this is a rumor. So I thought this was interesting and just thought I would share.

EDIT: As a note, I doubt that Cage even has a sent of that money left if he was truly paid. Nicolas Cage is known for spending large amounts of money at once. For example: Most of the time he gets paid he will usually blow all his cash on cars, motorcycles, houses, women, and lord knows what else. During the time he was making the Astro Boy film he was on the brink of financial ruin because of this. So I think the reason why most of his movies are trash is due to the fact that it pays. Doesn't care about anything as long as he gets paid, but that's just my theory.

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:52 am
by Dragonrider1227
Yeah, I am SO glad that Superman never happened. I love Tim Burton but Superman is NOT is thing. They just wanted him because his Batman movie was such a hit not thinking that his style works for Batman and not so much for Superman.
I gotta admit, Superman fighting a giant spider would be pretty cool. If it was the REAL Superman. Not what John Peters for some reason thinks Superman is.
For the record though, I actually liked Wild Wild West XD Although I can understand why fans of the show wouldn't
Kevin Smith should make a movie about making this Superman movie XD