Nicolas Cage insists his 'Superman Lives' 'would have been beautiful'
Before it died an ignoble death, Tim Burton‘s never-made ’90s blockbuster Superman Lives was poised to take the Man of Steel where no comic book movie had gone before. Burton freely adapted the film from the famous “Death of Superman” storyline, which saw the Kryptonian (played by longtime Superman fan, Nicolas Cage, who proved his devotion to the DC Comics icon by naming his son Kal-El) killed at the hands of the monstrous Doomsday followed by his eventual resurrection. But the filmmaker’s take on the Superman mythos proudly ignored comic book canon in both its narrative structure and visual style. “It would have been beautiful,” Cage tells Yahoo Movies at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the prolific actor’s latest film, the ultra-dark comedy Mom and Dad, premiered to rapturous applause amongst the midnight movie crowd. “Tim and I were about to get up to something really relevant.”
For years following the project’s demise, fans only had select glimpses of what the dynamic duo of Burton and Cage had in mind for Superman, which included a combined version of regular antagonists Lex Luthor and Braniac known as “Lexiac” and Kal-El drawing on Kryptonian life essence to restore his lost powers. But the floodgates opened with the arrival of Jon Schnepp’s 2015 documentary, The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened. Filled with never-before-seen concept art and behind-the-scenes footage and on-camera interviews with Burton, producer Jon Peters, and screenwriter Kevin Smith (who penned an earlier version of the script that Burton discarded), Schnepp’s film offers the most complete account of this uncompleted film, which ranks up there with Justice League: Mortal as one of the great “What if?” projects in the history of comic book cinema.
Nicolas Cage in Mom and Dad (Photo: Toronto International Film Festival)
One notable voice that isn’t featured in the documentary, though, is Cage’s. The actor declined to specify why he didn’t participate in The Death of “Superman Lives,” but did share some memories about the film’s origins. “They wanted Renny Harlin,” Cage reveals about the studio’s first choice of director. “Renny’s cool, I like Renny. But I said, ‘No, I need Tim Burton.’ Because Tim can make worlds. I wanted to see his Krypton.” And the images of Superman’s homeworld that Burton and his team of concept artists dreamed up delighted Cage to no end. “I saw what he was about to get up to. We were laughing looking at the drawings and the costumes.” Unfortunately, the imagery unnerved the executives at Warner Bros., whose confidence was further shaken by Burton’s high-profile 1996 sci-fi comedy flop, Mars Attacks! “They got scared,” Cage says. “They misunderstood Mars Attacks!, which is a great f–king movie, and got worried about Tim.”
Although Superman Lives never took flight, Cage is glad that fans are now able to see what might have been beyond the grainy images from an early costume test that leaked several years ago. “The Internet got some stupid pictures from the wardrobe — I don’t know how that got out. But you’ve seen the footage, so you know what I’m talking about. Tim’s Krypton was brilliant and genius. They missed out.” [Reply]
Originally Posted by 007:
I love that story every time I watch it. I still remember the first time I watched it and he mentioned WWW and my first thought was "that stupid ass spider" :-)
I know I LOOOOOVED them in my college years when I first caught them in syndication, but has anyone watched recently to know if Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron hold up today as series? [Reply]
so i thought www was for www.webcrawler.com which had a spider. Baas baaaa black sheep may hold up because it was based on real things. It isn't like Airwolf when string hides behind the moon the comes out of no where to block A tom chambers jump shot [Reply]
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
I know I LOOOOOVED them in my college years when I first caught them in syndication, but has anyone watched recently to know if Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron hold up today as series?
I watched the Black Sheep Squadron a few years ago and remember thinking that it looked pretty bad. The stock footage, especially when they would re-use it fairly frequently, sure didn't seem as badass as it did when I was a kid.
By contrast, 'The Flying Leathernecks'; a John Wayne flick bankrolled by Howard Hughes, still holds up pretty damn well. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
I know I LOOOOOVED them in my college years when I first caught them in syndication, but has anyone watched recently to know if Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron hold up today as series?
I've watched WWW in recent months on either CoziTV or MeTV, can't remember which. I enjoyed it as much as when I was a kid.
BSS I grew tired of about midway through the first season on its first run when I was 10, in large part for the stock footage as previously mentioned, so I doubt I'd be much of a fan today. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!:
I'm not a huge fan of his work, but he's a helluva in-person storyteller.
Yeah, he's pretty much come to the same conclusion.
He's brutally honest that his movies, particularly nowadays, are for his own amusement and his podcasting and live shows are where his passion lies.
And man does he talk, . . . I mean, these clips from shows where he gives monologues to a paying audience are one thing, but he'll podcast about anything. His 'Smod'-iverse [named because he started podcasting with filmaking partner Scott Moser, S-M-odcasts . . . ] covers everything from getting Mewes sober [literally, so long as Mewes stayed clean Kevin would show up and podcast antics between the two of them], to him getting a clergy license and officiating marriages, to talking with childhood friends about antics growing up in Jersey, to gabbing about Hollywood news [Hollywood Babbleon], to just sitting with Moser in his home office, smoking a bowl and talking about life.
There was a point a few years back where he was participating in 12-15 hours of content a week.
Not all of it is gripping [and I haven't sampled a whole lot of it], but he always has his conversational style. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
Yeah, he's pretty much come to the same conclusion.
He's brutally honest that his movies, particularly nowadays, are for his own amusement and his podcasting and live shows are where his passion lies.
And man does he talk, . . . I mean, these clips from shows where he gives monologues to a paying audience are one thing, but he'll podcast about anything. His 'Smod'-iverse [named because he started podcasting with filmaking partner Scott Moser, S-M-odcasts . . . ] covers everything from getting Mewes sober [literally, so long as Mewes stayed clean Kevin would show up and podcast antics between the two of them], to him getting a clergy license and officiating marriages, to talking with childhood friends about antics growing up in Jersey, to gabbing about Hollywood news [Hollywood Babbleon], to just sitting with Moser in his home office, smoking a bowl and talking about life.
There was a point a few years back where he was participating in 12-15 hours of content a week.
Not all of it is gripping [and I haven't sampled a whole lot of it], but he always has his conversational style.
Haha he did Joe Rogan's podcast. Another long talker. And my god it lasted fucking forever. [Reply]
