The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? (Part 1 of 2)

The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? (Part 1 of 2)

Well, I finally watched this crowd-funded documentary and it was worth it. It has some amazing footage never ever seen before. The doc actually gives you a clear reason (reasons) into why the Superman Lives movie fell apart. Spoiler Alert, WB has a ton of losing box office returns due to poor movies and Superman Lives was costing way too much to make. (Upwards of 300 projected) So, WB pulled the plug.

It was often reported that Burton lost interest in the project and left, but that was not the case. Burton was truly into the project and seemed to be into it with a full creative drive. And, somehow he was willing to work with John Peters again despite the fact they hated each other during Batman 89. Burton seemed to be drawn to Clark Kent/Superman being an outsider than anything else. I also think he latched on to the Lex Luthor/Brainiac thing.

The movie was going on full steam ahead when WB ran into some major bombs and the budget for SL was growing bit out of hand. Plus, WB still felt the burn from Batman and Robin. So, they pulled the plug in midstream. I think of the people working on the movie got 10% of their money from working on the project. I believe Burton did.

It is a great documentary with some great interviews from Burton, Kevin Smith and John Peters. Yet, there is no new interview with Nic Cage though, but you will see a lot with him in the documentary.

The documentary also goes into detail about the casting of Nic Cage and the issues fans had with said casting. I mean the documentary covers a lot of groundwork, but some of the best comes from Burton/Peters and Smith, because they all had their own competing views on what Superman meant for the story.

Overall, this doc is truly enjoyable with some wonderful insight into where comic book movies were in the 90s and where they were heading in the 2000s. Would Superman Lives be that connections between 90s and 2000 eras of movies? I am not sure. I am very happy that I got to see this crowd-funded doc. Not as much was known about this aborted project until now. So , check it out.

Grade: A-