Leaving Metropolis
Tue, September 22, 2009 
One can bitch and complain all ya want about Bryan Singer going “Emo” with the Man of Steel for his “requel” Superman Returns or the recent “Columbine Kal-El” get-up passing off as a “suit” on Smallville. But love or hate them, we can all agree that we avoided one Helluva kryptonite bullet with two simple words: Superman Lives.
Back in the mid-90s, Warner Brothers re-teamed director Tim Burton and producer Jon Peters who had successfully launched the Batman film franchise with the 1989 Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson film to do the same for the Last Son of Krypton. What resulted was one of the great “True Hollywood Stories” involving such epic debates as Peters’ desires for a non-suited, non-flying Supes, killer polar bears and giant spiders as told in vivid detail by one-time screenwriter on the project Kevin Smith here.
Using the same “thinking outside the box” mentality towards casting, Nicolas Cage (coming off his “Best Actor” Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas and popular commercial fare like The Rock and Face/Off) signed on the dotted line to portray Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent. Of course, what worked for Burton’s Batman doesn’t automatically transcend to Superman in regards to casting eccentric character-actors as iconic superheroes.
Taking one look at test footage of Cage in a newly designed red-and-blue suit (to be shown off the 3rd Act of the film after the Man of Tomorrow is resurrected from the dead) in addition to the sky-rocketing budget, Warner Brothers ultimately pulled the plug on Lives ironically enough replacing it with Lethal Weapon 4 helmed by Superman (and 75% of Superman II) director Richard Donner for their Summer 1998 tentpoles.
For those wondering after all these years just what the Hell Cage might have looked as Superman are in luck. A Japanese Tim Burton fan-site (who had previously leaked designs of what would have been Brainiac) claim to have the only known photograph taken of the actor in a costume fitting/test as shown in their YouTube video presentation.
If this is in fact real, words…fail to do justice what I’m thinking. “Wow” comes to mind. “That’s fucked up” is another one. Probably the defining thought that pops up is “Yeah…we were better off with Smallville and Singer’s film after all.”
Reader Comments (3)
Yeah that does look an action figure's body to me. But I do remain very confident that one day we will see the real thing.
What Phil said.
I agree as well. The image looks like long-haired Nic Cage head glued onto a action figure body. Nonetheless still horrifying. Though, as I've read Smith's script, I feel he could have given us an amazing Superman movie minus the Peters influences/demands.