Here are four names we never thought we’d hear put together for a movie pitch: Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Nicolas Cage and Superman. Roll those together for your elevator pitch, and we’d be begging you to take our money. Yet, somehow, this fantastic cocktail of creative strangeness was never realized, and now someone is making a documentary all about why not.
Superman Lives apparently suffered many story changes as it bounced around from concept to script to revised script to the stuff Hollywood legends are made of. The film was never made, leaving Cage fans everywhere with just enough ennui to make the recent news of a Superman Lives: What Happened documentary a really big deal.
And although we are terribly disappointed that we won’t get to see Cage don the iconic suit, we’re probably not as disappointed as Cage himself was. The admitted Superman super-fan is so fascinated with the Man of Steel that he named his son Kal-el!
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The documentary from producer/director Jon Schnepp includes interviews with Kevin Smith, Tim Burton and nearly every other production team member attached to Superman Lives. It also features raw footage from the original film, which includes clips of Cage in a sculpted blue suit, hair blowing behind him like a true alien super-creature.
The suit was, in true Burton fashion, unexpected, as Burton wanted to focus on Superman’s alienness and apply some creative interpretation to the artistic design. It’s an interesting concept, and the suit’s inclusion in the trailer whets our appetites for more inside information into the doomed film.
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Schepp released the Superman Lives: What Happened trailer as part of an $85,000 FanBacked campaign designed to raise funds for completion of the already crowdfunded documentary he spent the past year filming and editing. The filmmaker is obviously passionate about his subject, asking his interviewees to help paint a picture of the project’s journey in order to illuminate why the oh-so-intriguing concept was ultimately never made into a film.
Whether or not the documentary gets released, we’ve got to thank Schnepp for bringing attention to yet another fascinating moment in Cage’s filmography. Cage has developed something of a cult following in the years since the film’s conception, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the project somehow revived interest in a Nicolas Cage Superman.
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Perhaps Kevin Smith said it best in the trailer when he says, “Now when you think about it, if somebody was like, ‘Would you like to see a Nic Cage Superman movie?’ I would be like F*** and yes!”
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