“Superman Lives” remains one of those puzzling, tantalizing (yet ill-conceived) what-ifs. In the late 1990’s, producer Jon Peters had lined up director Tim Burton, writer Kevin Smith, and Nicolas Cage for a bold interpretation of D.C. Comics’ flagship superhero. It’s just that, well, nothing quite gelled and the film fell apart [ed. thank fucking god], with many of the principles walking away with hefty pay-or-play checks (Burton made $5 million, Cage $20 million + untold millions in pre-production work).
We’ve all read Kevin Smith’s fan boyish script (which seems to have been online from the beginning of time) and we’ve all heard Smith’s hilarious, undoubtedly exaggerated accounts of producer Jon Peters’ outrageous demands for the script (fighting polar bears, a giant robotic spider, etc.), but few concrete details have ever made it out of the “Superman Lives” black hole (Though there are a few schizo pieces of concept art floating around out there, which saw a dark-suited Superman, sometimes covered in what looked like barbed wire.)
A Japanese Tim Burton fan site, however, seems to be blowing the whole thing open again… if you believe the site’s legitimacy. They have a picture that seems to show a Nic Cage costume test for “Superman Lives,” although the suit he’s wearing bears little resemblance to the aforementioned concept art we’ve seen online. This photo features an odd, squished “S” on the chest, a hard plastic suit, and a large section of what looks like flesh-colored material towards his neck.
It’s only one photo and devoid of context it’s just another piece of oddball “Superman Lives” ephemera, but it’s still fun to think about what this project would have ended up becoming. While we still kind of like Bryan Singer’s belabored “Superman Returns,” this would have been an entirely different beast. While Singer brought a reverence to the franchise and a certain amount of psychological depth to the Man of Steel, he did so at the cost of any originality or, well, excitement. Singer’s was a deeply meditative affair that ended up being easier to admire than to love, with Superman not really doing much of anything besides flying and lifting really heavy objects. Burton’s version would have probably been a grand disaster of epic proportions, but it would have been way more interesting for guys that like pure action… especially if Superman ended up covered in barbed wire. – Drew Taylor