When it comes to adaptations of popular fiction, there are many films that, year after year, just can’t seem to get off the ground. The term “development hell” is often used to describe the state of these films. Very few film projects represent this phenomenon as well as what ended up becoming 2006’s
Superman Returns.
The film was the first Superman movie since 1987’s
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace nineteen years earlier. What transpired within those years was a maelstrom of input from many different artists, all attempting to put their own stamp on the classic character. Half a dozen scripts, multiple directors, and even different actors cast as the Man of Steel would come and go, each one trying to make their vision of the Man of Steel into film reality. Superman being such an iconic character, each new artist had different ideas on what a new Superman film should be, how to bring such a character to the screen once again, how to keep it fresh and up to date while respecting the history, and what Superman should mean for a new film audience.
For Warner Bros. studios, what should have been a simple comic book adaptation became an over-decade long uphill battle. This is the story of how they finally made that fifth Superman film.
The Backstory
Superman. Since his introduction in 1938’s
Action Comics #1, he has become one of the most iconic, endearing, and popular fictional characters ever created, and helped bring about the pop culture phenomenon known as the superhero.
Amidst various cartoon and radio adaptations, Superman was first adapted into live-action film with the 1948 movie serial adventure simply titled
Superman, starring Kirk Alyn, and its 1950 sequel
Atom Man vs. Superman. Shortly after, in 1951, a new Superman graced the silver screen, when George Reeves starred in the 58 minute feature film
Superman and the Mole Men. The film was meant to test the waters for a new television series starring the Man of Steel, and in 1952,
Adventures of Superman began airing in syndication. The series would last six seasons until Reeve’s tragic death in 1958. Both the film serials and the television series were light-hearted fare aimed at children. The next film version of the character was the 1976 television adaptation of the comedic Broadway musical
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman! starring David Wilson in the title role.
The previous year, the father-and-son producing team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind acquired the film rights to the character, with the intention of making a serious, large scale cinematic epic. And in 1978, under the guidance of director Richard Donner, Superman flew onscreen like never before.
Superman was part of a two-film project and shot alongside much of its sequel. Work on the second film was later taken over by director Richard Lester, and Superman returned to the big screen in
Superman II in 1981.
For the third film, the Salkinds took the series in a strange and surprising new direction, making 1983’s
Superman III was made into a screwball comedy co-starring Richard Pryor. 1984 then saw the release of the spinoff
Supergirl. Both films disappointed at the box office, and the Salkinds sold off the film rights to the character to cousins Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus of Cannon films.
With little money to spend, Golan and Globus produced 1987’s
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace on a shoestring budget. Directed by Sidney J. Furie, the end result was a hokey and farcical film, and a box-office flop that effectively ended the character’s reign on the big screen.
Despite handing over the reins to the title Superman, the Salkinds still retained the rights to another version of the character. In 1988, his partnership with his father having since dissolved, Ilya Salkind took control of the franchise’s future, creating the television series “Superboy” telling of the adventures of a young Man of Steel in his college years. The show’s first season starred John Haymes Newton in the title role, who was soon replaced for the remainder of the series by Gerard Christopher.
Meanwhile, after the failure of
Superman IV, Cannon Films ended up going fully bankrupt, and the Superman rights had reverted fully to the Salkind name. Ilya Salkind cites that working on “Superboy” got the character “back in the blood.” And in the early 1990s, during the show’s fourth season, he decided the time was right to try and make a fifth Superman film.
NOTE: All scripts marked "Readable" can be found at this site,
http://www.supermanhomepage.com/movies.php, at the bottom of the page.
1.
Superman Reborn (Ilya Salkind, Mark Jones and Cary Bates, 1992)
Readable? Yes (3rd draft)
In recent years, the Superman comics had taken major changes, with the 1986 revamp “Man of Steel” reintroducing the character for a new generation. For instance, rather than constantly disguising himself as a wimpy nerd in his alter ego, Clark Kent was now portrayed as more of a normal, average man, and a suitable contender for Lois Lane’s affections. And rather than a mad scientist, Lex Luthor was now a wealthy and powerful businessman. In the years following this revamp, more shake-ups followed, with Lois Lane finally learning the truth of Superman’s identity, and after fifty years in real world time, the pair were now engaged (they would be married in 1996).
For the new film, soon titled Superman Reborn, Salkind hired “Superboy” writers Mark Jones and Cary Bates to pen the screenplay. Despite the Superboy series airing at the same time, Salkind sought to get Christopher Reeve back in the lead role again, and renew the old franchise.
Bates and Jones’s screenplay saw Superman and Lois struggling with their feelings for each other in the face of his responsibilities. It also incorporated one of Superman’s archrivals never yet portrayed onscreen: Brainiac.
As in the comics, Brainiac has shrunken the Kryptonian city of Kandor before the planet’s destruction. Brainiac comes to Earth, and Metropolis is shrunken and taken into his collection. When the android appears in Metropolis in human form, Superman is apparently vaporized fighting him, but is actually saved by scientists within Kandor, who have teleported him into their own city. There, Superman encounters his own people. A good portion of the film’s action takes place in the city, with a depowered Clark finding his way out. With the help of a friendly alien inside Brainiac’s ship, Superman manages to free himself, defeat Brainiac, and restore Metropolis to its proper size. In the end, he reveals his secret identity to Lois and proposes.
A third draft was completed in August of 1992. However, that year also saw another giant event in Superman’s history. That fall, DC Comics launched the famous event “The Death of Superman.” The story made the kind of press unprecedented for a comic book story arc.
"The Death of Superman”
For those few who are unfamiliar, in the story, Superman finds himself in battle with an alien of extreme power and mysterious origins known as “Doomsday.” Superman is only able to halt Doomsday’s rampage and destroy the creature at the cost of his life. Of course, Superman’s “death” was never meant to be permanent, but was actually the mere start of a large-scale epic storyline that would conclude with the Man of Steel returning the following year.
Following the apparent death of the Man of Steel, four new heroes arrive in Metropolis, each one claiming, in some way, to be Superman. One is a man covered from head to foot in metal armor, called The Man of Steel. Another is a teenager claiming to be a clone of Superman, referred to as Superboy. There is also a cyborg appearing to be the hero brought back to life as half-machine, and another referred to as the Last Son of Krypton, who, for all appearances, seems to be the hero resurrected, except for the lethal way he dispatches criminals.
In the end, it is revealed that both the Last Son of Krypton and the Cyborg are actually former Superman villains. The Cyborg Superman turns out to be Hank Henshaw, a man whose mind now exists in a robotic body. His real agenda here and now is to help the alien warlord Mongul turn Earth into his own personal warship. The “Last Son of Krytpon” is in fact The Eradicator, a machine obsessed with recreating Kryptonian life. The Eradicator had stolen Superman’s body and placed it in a regeneration matrix, using the process to create an organic duplicate of the body for himself, but in the process actually causing him to believe he was Superman. The Eradicator soon finds that his time as Superman has caused him to develop a true conscience. Utlimately, as an unintended effect of his regeneration matrix, the original Superman finds himself resurrected.
Temporarily depowered and dressed in a sleek new black suit, the real Superman, alongside his three allies, fights to defeat The Cyborg and Mongul. The Eradicator sacrifices himself to save the real Man of Steel, the remaining champions defeat Cyborg and Mongul, and with new superheroes Steel and Superboy, Superman returns in all his glory to Metropolis. Lois and Clark were blissfully reunited (two years later, in 1996, they would finally tie the knot).
The Death of Superman was a phenomenal success, and sold out Superman comics all throughout that year. This, as well as the recent success of two films based on fellow DC hero Batman, caused Warner Bros. pictures, DC Comic’s parent company and distributor for the films, to decide that Superman could once again become a cash cow. Despite Ilya Salkind’s protestations, the studio managed, through a sequence of lawsuits, to wrangle the rights to the character away from him, cancelling out the Bates/Jones screenplay, and ending “Superboy” in 1992. Salkind’s time with the character was over. But the effort to bring Superman back to the big screen was just beginning.
The first thing that Warner Bros. created with the rights to the character wasn’t actually a new movie, but a television series. “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” debuted on ABC in 1993, a show focusing more on the romantic aspect between the two leads. The series would last for a total of four seasons. At the same time as Dean Cain played the hero on the small screen, Warner Bros. sought to simultaneously put a different Superman on the big screen, to adapt the Death of Superman storyline for a film audience. Warner Bros. hired producer Jon Peters, who had recently helped bring Batman to life, to do the same for Superman. Peters no doubt saw it as one more film to produce, to be finished within a few years. He could not have foreseen that it would be an uphill battle that would cover the next thirteen years of his life.
2.
Superman Reborn (Jonathan Lemkin, 1995)
Readable? Only the first 58 pages
Peters soon hired writer Jonathan Lemkin to pen the script. A television writer, having written for “Hills Street Blues” and “21 Jump Street,” and a contracted Studio rewriter, Lemkin sought to write a screenplay that kept the character fresh for a new generation, citing
“You've got to treat the legend with respect and at the same time put enough of a spin on it so that it's not something that people have seen before.”
Lemkin certainly kept to that idea. His idea was to tell an archetypal story with clear religious parallels. His script had little to do with the actual “Death of Superman” story arc, other than Superman dying and being resurrected.
The screenplay, which retained the title Superman Reborn, began with Clark and Lois already in a relationship, and dealt with themes of Superman feeling unable to adequately love a human woman. The villains of the film were an originally-created pair of humanoid aliens with the ability to bring one’s greatest fears to life. Together they manifested Superman’s greatest weakness, Kryptonite. Superman is killed in battle within the first act of the film. As he is dying in Lois Lane’s arms, his life force literally jumps into her, and Lois later finds that she is pregnant. The bad guys set up a castle fortress on the edge of Metropolis and recruit not only criminals, but the weird mutants that live under Metropolis as well (who were prevalent in some of the ‘90s comics).
Mere weeks later, the child is due and, soon after she gives birth, Lois and Jimmy are both killed by the villains henchmen. Raised underground by a friendly scientist, the child grows to twenty years old in just three weeks, and turns out to be, in fact, the original Superman, quite literally reborn.
This was, to say the least, a very daring and risky new direction for a Superman movie to take. Lemkin’s script possessed a campy, flagrant nature to it, with the villains spouting one-liners to each other, and it was also mired in Warner Bros. desire for the film to be “toyetic.” “Toyetic” is a term used to simply describe a film that can sell toys. With a massive amount of revenue gained by merchandising, this had become a priority in how big budget films were made at the time, such as 1995’s Batman Forever, which was in production at that time. Screenwriters were pushed to write in as many different things as possible that toys could be made out of, which included multiple vehicles, costume changes to sell more action figures, etc. Lemkin was the first writer to feel this kind of pressure on this project, but he certainly would not be the last.
A working script was completed by March of 1995, but Warner Bros. executives proved unhappy with the end result. Lemkin’s story was tossed out, and another one commissioned.
3. Superman Reborn (Gregory Poirier, 1995)
Readable? Yes, two drafts
Peters next hired Gregory Poirier, a new up-and-coming screenwriter, to create an all-new script, with the main idea still being the death and return of Superman. This script is listed as the third in the overall history of attempting a fifth film, yet it is the first to put forward the basic story patterns that would guide several more drafts from different writers in the years to come.
Poirier’s script saw Superman and Lois Lane back at square one, with Lois oblivious both to Clark’s affections or his true identity. Superman struggles with his feelings for her and the idea of telling her the truth. At one point, he even seeks therapy. Poirier moved closer to the source material, retaining the character of Doomsday. The main villain, however, again became Brainiac, here portrayed as an organic alien destroying worlds while looking for the perfect species to merge his own DNA with to save his own deteriorating form (the first draft posited that Brainiac was the cause of Krypton’s doom, but the later draft discarded this idea). Brainiac teams up with Lex Luthor, and creates Doomsday who, infused with Kryptonite blood destroys the Man of Steel.
This script also incorporated two other villains from the comics, the Silver Banshee and Parasite, as Brainiac’s henchmen. Superman’s body is stolen by an alien named Cadmus, an enemy of Brainiac whose home world was once destroyed by the creature. Superman soon revives and teams up with Cadmus to take down Brainiac. In keeping with the film’s toyetic approach, Superman is temporarily without powers, and forced to don a mechanical suit in order to defeat his enemies; one which changes into various different forms, including a jetpack. He also learns a new Kryptonian psychic power known as “Phin-Yar,” and with it, is able to dispatch the three henchmen. Cadmus is killed by Brainiac, but Superman ultimately regains his powers and sheds the armor, revealing his new black suit. He defeats Brainiac and, with his true identity revealed to Lois, embraces her in the end.
Poirier had his second draft done by December of 1995, and Warner Bros. executives were impressed. One person, who was not impressed, however, was filmmaker Kevin Smith.
4. Superman Lives (Kevin Smith, 1997)
Readable? Yes, two drafts.
Kevin Smith had made his name as a successful comedy filmmaker with films like Clerks and Mallrats, and was also a noted comic book fan. Impressed with his writing, Warner Bros. called in Smith to consult on a project of his choosing, and he eagerly accepted Superman. Smith was horrified with Poirier’s script, which he viewed as campy and disrespectful to the mythology of the character. He especially didn’t like the notion of filmmakers attempting to give the character angst over his place as Superman, something he felt was more akin to Batman. His protestations eventually led him to the attention of Warner Bros. executive Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, who decided to hire Smith to rework Poirier’s story into something more suitable.
But Smith soon found working with the film’s producer a challenge. Peters showed himself to be an eccentric, with many different ideas on what the film should be, none of them having anything to do with making a faithful Superman film. Smith was astonished to learn that Peter’s didn’t even want Superman to be his iconic suit, or to be featured flying. He wanted a grittier film, like his own Batman. While he wanted the title, the film Peters wanted didn’t appear to be a Superman film at all.
Peters also had very specific ideas as to what he wanted to see in the film. For instance, he was insistent that the third act feature Superman squaring off a gigantic spider. The notion of a climactic battle with such a creature was something Peters had in his head for years, and which he had merely chosen this film for. He was invariably preoccupied with basing aspects of the movie off those off of films that had already been popular, or merely things or ideas he had seen and liked. He would continually come up with ludicrous ideas and story points based on whatever he would see during the screenwriting process, which then had to be in the film for whatever reason. Brainiac, for instance, had to have a dog, because the Star Wars films (in the Special Edition re-release at the time) had Chewbacca, and that sold a lot of toys. Brainiac also had to have a robotic sidekick which would have the voice of a flamboyantly gay man, because such a character had worked well in Smith’s own latest comedy that had just premiered, Chasing Amy. Smith tried to reason that such things were not able to fit into the story of the script he was writing.
Smith also grew frustrated with executives, who wanted him to cut a key scene of dialogue between Superman and Lois Lane because it made the script run too long. They tried explaining to him that the script shouldn’t be about dialogue, that this was a corporate movie, and what really mattered was how many toys they could sell. This sent Smith to the verge of quitting the project. Some battles he lost, and some he won, but by early 1997, he had completed his second draft of the screenplay.
Smith took Poirier’s basic plot structure, but reworked it into his own vision, a pattern that, as stated, was doomed to repeat itself. His script once again saw Superman and Lois Lane starting out the story already in a relationship. In the beginning he attempts to propose, but Lois turning him down flat, unable to reconcile the extraordinary life of Superman with the ideas of a normal life and family.
Brainiac, here again portrayed in robotic form, is again shown as the instigator of Krypton’s doom. Obsessed with becoming more and more omniscient, he is seeking the advanced technology of the Kryptonian machine known as the Eradicator, described as a robotic creation of Superman’s father Jor-El, which came to Earth with Superman in his space ship. Again, Brainiac teams up with Lex Luthor, and uses Doomsday to kill Superman. Rather than Kryptonite blood as in Poirier’s script, he does so by using a gigantic satellite called the “Shadow-caster” to block out the sun and cut off superman’s power source (Neither script simply had Doomsday kill Superman by sheer force, as in the comics). Brainiac himself destroys the monster and convinces the world to think of him as its savior.
Here, it is the Eradicator who steals Superman’s body and he soon regenerates him. Once again, Superman is powerless, and the Eradicator morphs into the mechanical suit for him to fight in (Prior to that, there is a scene eerily reminiscent of one we would ultimately see in Spider-Man 2, in which a powerless Superman rushes into a burning building to save children). Superman forms a bond with the Eradicator, ultimately teaching him a little bit of humanity. This leads to the previously cold and apathetic machine to sacrifice himself in the final battle, just in time for Superman to regain his powers, reveal his new black suit, fight the giant spider (Smith called it a Thanagarian Snare Beast), defeat Brainiac, and reunite with Lois Lane.
Despite the hardships, Warner Bros. now believed they had a winning script, and the task was set about to find a director. Peters looked no further than the man with whom he had brought Batman to life, Tim Burton. Burton, of course, was a filmmaker known for creating elaborate, exuberant worlds in his films, filled with strange characters. Although his dark, bizarre style had ultimately led to him being removed as director of the Batman franchise after the second film, Peters believed he had just what it took to make Superman come to life.
Once the director was on board, however, he told the studio that he wanted an overhaul of the script by his own writer. Deciding that working with the blockbuster director was most important, the company said goodbye to Smith. Despite being nonplussed at being booted off at the first beckon call of the new director, Smith considered the experience a valuable one, and left to continue writing and directing comedies.
5. Superman Lives (Wesley Strick, 1997, to be directed by Tim Burton)
Readable? Yes, the original Strick draft, prior to Girloy’s rewrites.
Now, of course, this next period of the history is the most famous, and has it’s own documentary coming out this year that will give us heretofore unseen glimpses into this failed production. The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened is expected to hit in May,and I for one am greatly awaiting it.
For our purposes here, however, we will more briefly go over these notorious events.
Burton then hired his own writer, Wesley Strick, who had done an uncredited rewrite of Batman Returns to heavily rewrite the screenplay. Burton, who would later profess to never reading comics, had his own take on Superman, which was to tap into the idea of him being an alien, giving him feelings of being an outsider on Earth.
Strick kept much of same story points created up to that time. At least his first draft (as you will see, various drafts of even this one version would be written) Brainiac is again the villain, teaming up with Lex Luthor and using Doomsday as the instrument of Superman’s destruction,along with the sun-blocking device. While, as in previous drafts, Brainiac was the cause of Krypton’s destruction, here he was also shown to be a creation of Jor-El. Strick also went back to the idea of Lois being oblivious of Superman’s identity at the beginning, with Clark revealing this to her early on and her struggling to come to grips with it. Once again, Superman dies, yet this time much further in the film, about halfway. There is a Kryptonian machine that resurrects him, although this time it is called simply K. In another deviation, here the resurrected Superman is devoid of his past memories for much of the second act before finally getting them back in time to defeat his two enemies.
Now, it must be said that this script is, to say the least, bizaare. Even for a Tim Burton film, there is so much outlandish and idiosyncratic material as to surprise any reader. At the risk of sounding unobjective, it is quite hard to see this script ever being filmed as it was. Things continually happen that simply don’t make any sense. For instance, there is a scene early on where Lois and Jimmy are in the arctic doing a story, and see Clark (who was obviously visiting the fortress of Solitude), simply strolling past them in his street clothes. They are surprised to see him, but not as much as you would expect, almost as if they had seen him on an unexpected street corner. Later on, Lois even puts the whole incident as calmly as angrily asking him what he was doing up there.
There is also an extravagantly farcical sense of humor to Lex and Brainiac’s dialogue. To give you an idea, there is a scene where Lex, watching Superman’s fight with Doomsday, sticks his hair (yes, he has hair) up like Don King and says “You loved the Thrilla in Manilla! You dug the Rumble in the Jungle! Now Brainy and I bring you: The Superman Stoppa in Metroppa!” Later on, the two villains combine themselves into one body, leading to more strange, buddy-buddy like dialogue between them, such as trying to come up with their new name (they settle on “Lexiac”).
Just as in the previous drafts, K creates a mechanized suit for the Man of Steel , which comes off in time for the end as the Man of Steel regains his powers (in the first draft, the black suit is gone and Superman here simply wears his classic costume with a platinum 'S'). K ,of course dies in the final battle, and Superman fights and defeats the giant spider (Strick even kept the name Thanagarian Snare Beast). In the end, Lexiac’s form is overloaded with power and they are destroyed.
(Although it's not clear at what point or by whom it was added, by the time of the last rewrite, by Dan Gilroy [see below], the script features Clark in a relationship with Lois and, as in Poirier's script, in therapy, with the film ending by Lois revealing to Superman that she is pregnant with his child).
However strange and incredulous the script was, Warner Bros. accepted it. With a director attached and the project moving forward, a teaser poster was unveiled at that February 1997 Toyfair expo.
The film entered pre-production in June of 1997 with the plan to be released in the summer of ‘98, in time for the 60th anniversary of the character. Burton soon made his casting choice for the Man of Steel himself: Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage. Needless to say, his casting news came as a shock, to many fans. But although Cage’s appearance and demeanor was far from what most people considered to be Superman, Burton admired Cage’s ability to transform himself into a given role, and felt this would even be the first time an audience would accept Superman’s disguise of simply wearing glasses as believable. In addition, Michael Keaton confirmed he was involved in the film, claiming he was "not exactly" playing Batman. Tim Allen claimed that he was in talks to play Brainiac, and Kevin Smith has revealed that Burton also cast Chris Rock in the role of Jimmy Olsen.
Pre-production was now in full swing. With "Lois and Clark" coming to an end on television that summer, the time was better than ever to bring Superman back onto the silver screen. Burton and his team went to work creating production art and design for a very unique and different version of Superman, including a multitude of different costume ideas for Superman’s different stages throughout the film.
They too, however, were not immune to Peters and the executives’ peculiar demands. The films’ art department was given directions on their designs for the film by Hasbro Toy Company. Brainiac was meant to have many different forms to be able to transform into, and super-powered suit was to turn into a flying vehicle at one point. Peters would bring children into the department to survey the drawings in order to evaluate the toy possibilities.
This toyetic strategy was brought to its fullest extent, where it did not serve Warner Bros. well with that summer’s latest Batman film Batman and Robin. The film’s campy, outlandish approach to the character ended in major financial disappointment, and effectively ended the Batman franchise for the next seven years. Batman & Robin was one of a string of box office letdowns that Warner Bros. suffered that year, making for record low income numbers. This also included an adaptation of one of Superman’s supporting cast, Steel, starring Shaquille O’Neal.
With the Burton film’s budget reaching $150 million, the studio suddenly became very hesitant to go ahead with the expensive project, especially with it being another superhero film. Although locations had already been scouted, and work on certain sets had begun, the start date for the film was indefinitely pushed back, and all plans for a summer 1998 release were cancelled. The studio called in writer Dan Gilroy to rewrite Strick’s script in order to lower the budget by 50 million dollars.
Burton stuck with the project, through all the setbacks, for months, hoping to see it through. But delays continued, and nothing had moved forward by April of 1998, a few months before the film had been planned to be released. With the option of continuing with the film or pursuing other interests, Warner Bros. chose to put the project on “indefinite hold.” Exasperated at losing a year of his life, Burton left the project behind him, while Cage remained signed.
Over the years, various pictures and videos have found their way onto the net showing what might have been, including the various costumes the hero might have worn in various stages of the film. (with so many, it seems these were various proposals made over time, not all costumes that were meant to be worn together in the movie). These pictures below represent only what we have known thus far. But the aforementioned documentary will give us a much closer look at the true details of all the chaos that went down. So be ready for it!
The production was now five years and several dollar figures into development without a director, and with no clear plans for the future. In the meantime, Peters and Warner Bros. focused their attentions on another big-budget adventure: The film adaptation of the classic television series “Wild Wild West.” It was with this film that Peters was finally able to indulge his desire for a climactic showdown with a giant spider.
6. Superman: The Man of Steel (Alex Ford & J Ellison, 1998)
Readable? Yes
Now in the age of the internet, fans across the world were monitoring and becoming frustrated at the project’s lack of progress. One Superman fan, an aspiring screenwriter named Alex Ford, saw this as an opportunity. Ford wrote his own script (with a co-story credit by J Ellison) and submitted it to Warner Bros. Despite his lack of credentials, Ford’s draft actually caught the notice of Peters and the studio, who, at this point, were willing to consider going in a different direction with the story. Receiving the chance of a lifetime, Ford was brought in to work with the producers to revise and craft the script into the next Superman film.
Ford’s plotline starred both Lex Luthor and the comic character of Metallo (a cyborg with a heart of Kryptonite). The story featured a superman growing ill and powerless, when Metallo arrives in Metropolis as a new hero, seemingly taking his place. It soon turns out, however, that Metallo is a cyborg created by Lex Luthor from the body of a mercenary, designed to cause Superman’s illness and replace him with a being under Luthor’s own power. Even in Ford’s script, Superman is once again is forced to wear a special toyetic suit in order to protect himself from the Kryptonite and battle Metallo to the finish.
This would be a brief brush with success for Ford, however, and he soon got a taste of the studio’s lack of enthusiasm for stories and emphasis on merchandise.
“I can tell you they don't know much about comics. Their audience isn't you and me who pay $7.00. It's for the parents who spend $60 on toys and lunchboxes. It is a business, and what's more important, the $150 million at the box office or the $600 million in merchandising?”
After only a short courtship with his screenplay, Ford was let go by the company, who returned to the Strick/Gilroy script.
7.
Superman Lives! (William Wisher, 2000)
Readable? Yes.
Undeterred by their lack of progress, Warner Bros. and Peters continued to try and get a film made, and shopped the Strick/Gilroy script to various directors, including Michael Bay, Martin Campbell, and Brett Ratner. In June of 1999, with Cage still signed to star, the decision was made to once again, commission a new script. William Wisher, whose biggest success had been as the co-writer of the gigantic film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was hired to once again refresh the story.
Wisher’s script removed any traces of “Lexiac.” Brainiac is here again portrayed as a creation of Superman’s father Jor-El and the destroyer of Krypton, but here he is a bilogicial being and with Jor-El is the king of Krypton. Brainiac is still the destroyer of Krypton, and the thing he has been looking for for years is Superman himself. Here it is once again Clark who is beset by doubts about his relationship with Lois, again dealing with his feeling of alienation as an extra-terrestrial on Earth. Brainiac forms an alliance with Luthor, creates Doomsday, and brings about Superman’s destruction.
Superman is this time regenerated by a fellow Kryptonian, Mal-Ar, called the “last knight” of Krypton, who has also been searching for Clark his whole life. Mal-Ar reveals that survivors of Krypton are still scattered throughout space, waiting for their prince to come and reunite them. The powerless Superman dons his toyetic armor, this time armed with a Kryptonian crystal sword, fights his way to Brainiac and engages him in a sword fight. Mal-Ar, much like his predecessors in this role, sacrifices his life, Superman regains his powers, and Brainiac is defeated. In the end, Superman decides to take to the stars to search out and reunite his people, and Lois chooses to go with him.
Despite the massive character name associated with the franchise, Wisher’s script didn’t have any luck finding a director either. By June of 2000, Nicolas Cage had had enough, and departed the project. The search for another actor then commenced. Peters tried offering the role to his Wild Wild West star, Will Smith. Smith turned it down, for obvious reasons.
8. (Paul Attanasio 2001, to be directed by McG)
Readable? No.
In April of 2001, two years after Wisher’s draft was completed, Paul Attanasio, veteran screenwriter and creator of television series like “Homicide: Life on the Street,” was hired to write his own screenplay. Virtually nothing is known about Attanasio’s script, including if it even continued adapting the storyline set down by Poirier or told a new story.
However, Peters and Warner Bros. were soon able to hire a director for it. Joseph McGinty Nichol, or McG as he is officially known, had recently made his directorial debut with the action comedy film version of the classic television series, Charlie’s Angels. Despite his eccentric-sounding professional name, McG was tapped to bring Attanasio’s screenplay to the screen.
9. Superman (J.J. Abrams, 2002)
Readable? Yes, two drafts. The original, and the one submitted after "Batman vs. Superman" [see below]
Once again, they had their director. But Peters and Warner Bros. then made the unusual decision to completely change scripts under the same director. Warner Bros. abandoned Attanasio’s screenplay, and hired television creator J.J. Abrams to bring about something new. Abrams was not yet the science fiction mogul he is known as today, but was a successful screenwriter, crafting such films as Regarding Henry and Forever Young, and creating the hit television series “Felicity” and “Alias.”
This time, Peters and company were finally done with their attempts to bring their “Death of Superman,” story arc to the screen. Gone from the hope of life on the bigscreen were Brainiac, the robotic suit, and some kind of alien mentor to die in the third act. The new screenplay told a different tale chronicling an entirely new origin story. Abrams’ main concern was to breathe new life into the franchise. With the same story having been told for over sixty years, Abrams wanted to use the established mythology, but mix it up in new and exciting ways, to create a new saga for the modern film audience.
The most major change to the mythology that Abrams wrought was that the planet Krypton was not destroyed, but ravaged by war and brought under the control of an evil tyrant, the brother of Jor-El. The infant Kal-El is sent to Earth with the intention of him fulfilling a prophecy by returning one day to free his planet. As a child, Clark finds his future Superman suit as a gift from his biological father. He eventually makes his debut as Superman, and Pa Kent dies of a heart attack after seeing it on television. Superman shortly makes an enemy out of CIA agent Lex Luthor, and the forces of Krypton converge on Earth. Luthor joins forces with the Kryptonians, and helps them discover Kryptonite.
The screenplay called for midair martial arts battles against the main villain, Superman’s own Kryptonian cousin, Ty-Zor, before being killed with Kryptonite. This aspect, the death and resurrection, still managed to sneak its way into Abram’s script. Back on Krypton, however, the imprisoned Jor-El takes his own life; an act which that is somehow able to resurrect his son in his place, and Superman rises again to defeat his enemies in battle. In perhaps the most bizarre twist, however, Lex Luthor himself turns out to be a rogue Kryptonian, and engages in one last mid-air battle with the Man of Steel before being the Man of Steel emerges victorious. Superman then departs Earth for Krypton, to become its savior, leading into a potential trilogy.
Abrams had his script ready to go. But in September 2001, McG soon stepped out of the project in order to direct the sequel to his own film, Charlie’s Angels. Soon after this, Warner Bros. were once again approached with the opportunity to take the character in another direction entirely.
10. ”Batman vs. Superman” (Andrew Kevin Walker, 2002, to be directed by Wolfgang Peterson)
Readable? Yes
In addition to trying to get a Superman film made, Warner Bros. was also facing a similar problem regenerating their Batman franchise. Soon, the decision was made to kill two birds with one stone. In August 2001, it was announced that screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, most well known for writing the hit 1995 thriller Seven, was hired to write the crossover film event, collectively known as “Batman vs. Superman.” Without losing any steam, the studio soon hired a director: Oscar-nominee Wolfgang Petersen, whose previous efforts included the German film Das Boot and the fantasy adventure The Never Ending Story.
Petersen was now attached to direct what promised to be one of the most exciting prospects ever for comic book fans around the world. Walker’s script saw a Superman and Batman who were old friends. Clark Kent is newly divorced from Lois Lane and finds a love interest in Lana Lang. Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, is retired from the cape and cowl, and celebrates his wedding with Clark as best man. When his new wife is murdered by the Joker, Bruce gets back into the suit to avenge her. Superman tries to stop his old friend from his murderous tirade, as does Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, who becomes Bruce’s love interest. Bruce goes so far as to steal Kryptonite to use against his friend. The two heroes come to blows in a massive battle royale that would have been the feature’s main attraction. After battling each other, the two team up to take down the real menace, the Joker. It is ultimately revealed that Bruce’s wife was working for the villain all along, and what’s more, that all of this has been a bigger plan of none other than Lex Luthor. Armed in his own mechanical super suit, Luthor battles both heroes. Upon defeating him, the two friends reconcile and go out for a drink.
At the same time, a separate effort was already well underway to return Superman to the small screen. In some form, at least. In October 2001, the television series “Smallville,” starring Tom Welling as a teenage Clark Kent before becoming Superman, began airing on The WB television network. The show was a massive hit, and would last for a total of ten seasons. Unlike “Superboy” before it, the series only featured Clark Kent performing heroic deeds outside of costume. This was all the more reason for Warner Bros. to continue work on a Superman feature film outside of the series.
A rewrite of Walker’s script by Batman film veteran Akiva Goldsman writer of the infamous Batman & Robin, but also an Oscar winner by this point) was completed in June of 2002, with shooting scheduled for 2003 and a release in summer 2004. Petersen began the casting process, searching for action stars to fill both pairs of boots, and for Superman, wanted popular actor Josh Hartnett, who turned it down.
However, Abrams, not to be outdone, soon turned in a new draft of his script, and the studio once again began to get excited over the prospect of a standalone Superman film. In addition to the events concerning the development of a new Batman film, the studio ultimately decided to pull the plug on “Batman vs. Superman” in favor of devoting individual films to the two heroes. Petersen, and all remnants of the crossover event of the generation, was left in the dust.
Years later, however, Goldsman couldn't help but throw in a little reference to this would-be project in the 2007 film which he produced, I Am Legend, featuring a post-apocalyptic future in which a certain movie poster still hangs over Manhattan.
Abrams, Part 2 (with Josh Schwartz, 2003)
Work continued on the Abrams project, codenamed “Superman: Flyby.” In September, a new director was chosen, in the form of Brett Ratner. Ratner was a director of comedies like Rush Hour, but had recently made a debut in drama with the Hannibal Lecter film Red Dragon. Back on track once again, filming was to start in late 2003.
It was around this same time that the plot synopsis for the film ended up leaking online. Fans did not prove happy about the many changes wrought to the mythology. The World Wide Web was soon aflame with outcries against the project before it even began filming. In the meantime, Ratner made the first major casting decision: Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins would play the role of Superman’s father, Jor-El. Casting for the Man of Steel himself, however, was taking far longer than expected.
Ratner, like Petersen, pursued Josh Hartnett for the lead. When he turned it down, other famous actors like Ashton Kutcher and Paul Walker were in the running. The consideration of various actors carried on for months. The progress was well documented on the web as well, with fans around the world watching attentively, but also growing frustrated, with no decision able to be made.
Ratner and Peters ended up dramatically clashing over differences on the project. The studio was also clamoring to lower the budget, which was now in excess of $200 million dollars. That didn’t even count the money spent on all the years of failed projects before it.
Famed star Brendan Fraser and soap opera actor Matthew Bomer were reportedly in final contention for the role. But in March of 2003, Ratner had had enough and, like those before him, left the project behind him, blaming casting difficulties. Reports since have shown that Ratner had in fact chosen Bomer for the role, who had even tried on the new version of the suit. With Ratner’s departure, Hopkins too dropped out of the project. 2003 would come and go with no production started.
Peters once again approached McG, who had completed work on his sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and he soon returned to the job. McG continued the casting nightmare begun by Ratner, auditioning actors like Jason Behr, Jared Padalecki, and Henry Cavill. A routine basic rewrite of the script by television writer Josh Schwartz was commissioned, production art, visual effects prep work and location scouting continued. McG planned on shooting the film in New York City. However, Warner Bros. accountants discovered that the budget could be cut by twenty-five million dollars by shooting in Australia. This led to a great disagreement with McG, who insisted on shooting the film in North America. In April of 2004, the director once again abandoned the project.
As for his reasons, McG stated “it was inappropriate to try to capture the heart of America on another continent." A year later, however, he would state that the real reason was his own personal fear of flying.
Although no press announcement was made at the time, reports since then have shown that McG had made at least one casting decision with Robert Downey Jr. set to star as Lex Luthor. But now the project was once again left up in the air.
Jon Peters had now been on the Superman project for over a decade, with nine different screen stories having tried and failed to go into production. At this point, no one could have blamed anyone for thinking that the project would never happen. But Peters was still not giving up.
11. Superman Returns
Since the release of the film X-Men in 2000, a superhero-movie craze was taking Hollywood by storm. Already, film adaptations of Spider-Man and the Hulk had hit the screen, with plenty more in the pipeline. This did not exactly lighten the pressure to get a new Superman film made. Ironically, it was Bryan Singer, the director of X-Men and it's sequel, X2, who would ultimately make it happen.
In 2004, Singer, knowing about the problems the Superman film was facing, conceived of his own story idea, and was invited to pitch it to Warner Bros. Singer was a fan of the original two Superman films directed by his X-Men executive producer Richard Donner. Singer’s idea was not to totally reboot the franchise, but make a sequel of sorts to the original Donner film, continuing in their storyline and style. His storyline, conceived with X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, consisted of Superman returning to Earth after a long absence only to find the world, and Lois Lane, have moved on without him. Peters and Warner Bros. enthusiastically accepted the proposal. And that July, they once again had a new story and a director attached. This also meant, however, that Singer would have to bow out of “X-Men 3.” In a strange twist of fate, his replacement on that project became none other than Brett Ratner.
With such a long history of failed production attempts, fans everywhere were no doubt skeptical that this project, with this director, would prove to be any different. But pre-production moved along steadily, as did casting. Like Donner before him, Singer was determined to cast an unknown in the lead role. Going through old audition tapes from McG’s time, he noticed one particular standout: A 24 year old from Norwalk, Iowa: Brandon Routh.
In October 2004, news broke that, after years of searching, the role of Superman had again been cast. Soon, for the first time in the project’s long history, casting choices for the rest of the iconic characters started rolling in. This time the project was really moving forward. And in March of 2005, filming on the aptly named Superman Returns officially began.
Superman Returns itself incorporated certain aspects from the many scripts that had come before it. For instance, Superman’s first act being to save an airplane carrying Lois Lane and setting it down in a baseball field came from JJ Abrams script. The black suit even made a cameo, and the film even briefly teased Superman’s demise. (In the end, that bit just had to find it’s way in.)
It had been nineteen years since the last Superman film, fourteen years since the first proposed script, and thirteen years since producer Jon Peters had signed onto the project. But in 2006, Superman once again flew on the big screen.
Aftermath: “Superman VI” and Beyond
Superman Returns grossed nearly 400 million dollars worldwide, and plans were already moving ahead for production on the sequel, with writers Dougherty and Harris working on the story, and Bryan Singer signed on to return as director, with a projected release date for summer of 2009. However, Warner Bros. soon pushed the project back. Despite its decent theatrical performance, the studio was not satisfied with the result. Singer was flippant, citing
“That movie made $400 million dollars! I don’t know what constitutes under-performing these days!”
Much of the reason for Warner’s disappointment no doubt lay in the smaller prophet that was actually reaped. After thirteen years of canceled scripts, abandoned directors, and failed production attempts, the budget for the overall project had spiraled upward, and in the end had passed the 200 million dollar mark. Warner Bros. had been hoping for an even greater net sum to compensate. President Alan J. Horn stated that the film “should have made 500 million.”
For fans, some enjoyed the film for its unusual plotline and the emotional vulnerability given to the character of Superman, and enjoyed it’s nostalgic continuity with the Christopher Reeve films. Others, however, thought the film should have stood on its own. Many believed that the story, once again featuring Lex Luthor using Kryptonite against the Man of Steel, was uninspired and repetitive. One of the biggest complaints was that the cast was too young to be believable. People also had differing opinions on the film making Superman and Lois Lane the parents of an illegitimate child.
The sequel to Superman Returns was now on indefinite hold itself, and by this point, fans knew what to expect. Two years after the film’s release, Singer was still pushing for and expecting the sequel to be produced. But in August 2008, Warner Bros. head of production Jeff Robinov officially canceled any plans, stating
“Superman Returns didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had Superman worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009”
Robinov expressed interest in a future reboot of the franchise, but for years, no plans materialized. Plans for a Justice League film starring Superman were at one point very much in development, with D.J. Cotrona even cast in the lead role, before the film was cancelled (and that itself is a story for another time).
A fifth Superman film had finally come. But, as it appeared, that would be all there would be for some time to come.
In February of 2010, however, news broke that a new Superman project was officially in development, under the supervision of famed director Christopher Nolan. Nolan had enjoyed extreme success with another superhero. His two Batman films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight resurrected the character, and the latter was a financial and critical achievement unheard of for superhero movies. Now, while also planning his third outing in the Batman franchise, Nolan would be producing a new Superman vision to be penned by his Batman co-writer David S. Gayer. In the meantime, after ten years on the air, “Smallville” came to a close on television, with audiences catching only a small glimpse of Tom Welling’s character suited up as the iconic hero.
Unlike the previous project, the sixth Superman film, soon titled Man of Steel, had no trouble getting off the ground. Director Zack Snyder was chosen in October, and in January 2011, Superman has already been cast in Henry Cavill, a British actor who had been one of the top choices years ago under McG. The film was released in June of 2013, just in time for the 75th anniversary of the character. This time, the film was a major hit, and managed to kick off a new franchise.
And we all know the rest, correct? The film now finds it’s place in the middle of the growing DC Cinematic Universe, with Snyder now working on post-production on none other than Superman/Batman crossover film. At the announcement of that film, many fans no doubt felt a certain sense of déjà vu.
Throughout the years, Superman has enjoyed numerous adaptations throughout popular media. It is a character that inspires passion in people, strong opinions, and heated debates. For many years, everyone from Tim Burton to McG, from Kevin Smith to J.J. Abrams, sought to have their own vision on the mythology. Each and every one was unique in its own way, in how it sought to honor the classic story, while being fresh and new. Even Man of Steel has met with its fair share of critics. But however one may feel about it, Superman is once again currently starring in a major film franchise, with a pair of Justice League films currently in the works and even more fims in the series planned beyond that!
And it his highly unlikely that this franchise will be the final incarnation of the Man of Steel onscreen. As it has happened for three quarters of a century, he will undoubtedly continue to see various adaptations and interpretations, new talents and new faces to represent the Man of Steel as he continues to fly up, up, and away.