7) Superman Lives
Following the disaster of Superman IV: Quest for Peace, Warner Bros. was looking to go in a different direction for the next run – and oh boy did they assemble the right team for ‘different.’ Though it was to be written by Kevin Smith and Dan Gilroy, directed by Tim Burton, and star Nicolas Cage as Superman, amazingly one other individual involved with Superman Lives trumped the rest for madcap ideas: producer Jon Peters.
Ostensibly following the Death of Superman comic book storyline, Peters asked that Superman didn’t fly, that he wore a black suit, and that – for some reason – he fight a giant spider for the climax. Peters also asked f0r a scene featuring villain Brainiac fighting polar bears, a villainous robot likened to a “gay R2-D2 with attitude,” and Chris Rock and Michael Keaton appearing as, respectively, Jimmy Olsen and – quite possibly – Batman.
The studio was so serious about this film that they gave Cage a $20 million pay-or-play contract, meaning he got paid whether the film was made or not. Sadly, the film community’s collective dream of seeing Nic Cage saving cities in the Super-suit was nixed when the plug was pulled – after $30 million had already been spent on wasted pre-production. The Superman Lives project eventually morphed into Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, a ‘proper’ take on the Man of Steel that featured no giant spiders whatsoever, and which fans generally agree was far, far duller.
