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

-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.