-John Peters the
producer: This guy is everything wrong with Hollywood then and
today. The doc does explain why he's attached to every Superman
movie and WB has to have him linked to it. Peters is one of the
goofiest people you will ever see. He kind of takes some jabs at
Kevin Smith and talks about the tension between him and Burton. The
doc also goes into Peters bringing his kids in to make judgments on
drawings. He would also grab tech guys and put them in wrestling
moves and headlocks.
He not only
wanted Spiders in the movie, but polar bears. The doc director even
notes that there two different versions of Smith's script one with
live polar bears and another later version with just statues of polar
bears.
Peters even
takes a phone call during the interview and it is one of the funnest
things you will ever see. You can see the doc director sitting there
chilling. I almost think Peters had someone call him just to make
him look powerful.
Peters name was
listed in the Man of Steel movie and I remember shaking my head when
I saw his name.
-Nic Cage test
footage: The movie was so far along that they brought in Nic Cage
into a hotel room to try the Superman suit. There were photos
bouncing around the Internet recently. But, the actual video footage
only surfaced for this doc. It is interesting to see Nic Cage act
like a child discovering a new toy. He's glowing with pure joy.
Seeing him interacting with Burton was a treat. Today, Cage no
longer gives a shit about his movies. While the choice of making
Superman wasn't sold to me, his joy came through in this uncovered
footage.
- Lex Luthor/
Brainiac merge into one being: I found this interesting because the
DC Animated Universe would take this story line and make it into a
major over-arching plot point from Superman TAS to Justice League
Unlimited. Did they use elements from SL scripts and use this story
line?
-ILM test
footage: That stuff was amazing. It shows a guy in a Superman suit
switching from a real person to a CGI seamlessly and this was done
back in the mid 90s. I can't believe neither ILM or WB destroyed the
footage. It kind of contradicts what Burton wanted with Superman's
flying abilities though. Burton just wanted Superman to merely leap
around, but ILM had footage of him completely flying though.
-Ninjas vs
Superman: While in his prime, Superman would have taken on a bunch
of human (normal) ninjas, as it was presented by the storyboards.
Keep in mind the ninjas would have been quickly beaten up by Superman
in a matter of seconds, but this was one the notes that WB insisted
on. It seems odd today, but everyone wanted ninjas in their movies
even when it doesn't make sense.
-Superman Lives
Brainiac skull ship: This was one of the coolest things in the movie
by far. They actually built a complete model of the Brainiac ship
for the third act of the movie. And, it is a highly detailed model
too! John Peters owns (IE he allegedly “took” the model once he
knew the SL project was dropped) the model and has it in his office.
-Tim Burton
seemed to really-really hate Kevin Smith's script, despite the fact
it was the closest to a DC universe story (with Batman making a
cameo). Burton didn't even want to discuss Smith's script with his
new writer, despite the fact WB told them elements from Smith's
script HAD to stay in the re-writes. I think its funny that he hated
the Smith script so much.