4 CANCELLED Superman Movies You Need To Know About

4 CANCELLED Superman Movies You Need To Know About

With the character's 75 years history, he's been at the big screen many times with results proving good to just 'Quest For Peace' awful, but which films didn't make the cut and failed to reach the big screen? Get the details....

Editorial Opinion
By Jeremius - Jun 09, 2016 02:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Superman


Superman has had his many adventures through the big screen through his many years of history. The Christopher Reeves movies are perhaps the most popular; defining the character for years...until Superman IV. But that film's failure didn't stop movie studios from bringing the Man Of Steel back to the big screen as Superman Returns was released to mixed reviews and it did not lit the box office on fire, either. 

But that still didn't stop the corporate commanders from commisioning ANOTHER reboot in the form of Man Of Steel. Filled with dark and gloominess and 9/11 imagery for all the psychos in the world. It did not fare well with critics, but fans did get a good watch out of it and even that did not set the box office on fire. Jesus, pretty cold over at the Superman box office, huh?.  Batman V Superman didn't help the bad characterization of Steel Superman as...well, for those who've seen BVS, know what i am talking about.

Before that, however, many studios tried to bring the Man Of Tommorow back at the big screen; with sequels, reboots and prequels, aplenty. This is a collection of them.


4. Superman Returns Sequel
Let's all admit it, right now; Superman Returns was a bore. A movie with no real action, pointless Jesus imagery and not-good characterizations of Lois and Clark; more like teenagers dressing up as Lois and Supes. Point is, it's far from the best Superman movie, but not as bad as everyone pretends it to be; it's actually pretty good, if you go in not expecting much action and all. 

The movie got some good reviews, but most of them were mixed. The movie didn't bring much money either, well, not as much as WB were hoping anyway. So, a sequel was still gonna happen, but as we all know, it never did. Singer wanted to follow-up the first one with a sequel which included Darkseid-yes, Darkseid and would have been really "world-destroying". While that may sounded cool, only one can wonder how it would have gone down.
3. Superman Flyby
Superman Flyby was a weird creature; directed by JJ Abrams, this would have served as some kind of reboot/sequel, depending on how you view it.  While Man Of Steel made the hero dark and gritty, which was the opposite of what Superman should have been. This picture painted a more tradinitional picture of the supehero.

Flyby's screenplay re-imagined Superman where Krypton still existed and Luthor would have been some agent on part of the government with an obsession for UFOS and such. While those tweaks might have angered fans, they sound crazy but alright, to me. Then, the story goes on with an infant Kal-El exiled to earth after a civil war errupts. Then is adopted my Martha and Jon Kent and the usual drill. The script tweeked many things about Superman and the Rogue Kryptonians would have been the villains for this movie. Also like in Superman Lives, he would have died and be reborn. Jude Law, Josh Harnett, Paul Walker and Brendan Fressar were considered.

2. Superman Lives


This one was a shocker. Directed by Tim Burton and starring everyone's favorite Nic Cage playing the Man Of Cage...no, i mean, the Man of Steel. It was a movie that was destined to reach Batman & Robin heights of bad, for sure. With Kevin Smith penning one of the most messy and bad Superman scripts-or hell, one of the most bad scripts i've read. But gotta admit, it was fascinating..if you smoked some weed and had some dorritos at your side while reading it.

The movie didn't even make Superman fly, it was a movie on a whole other level of 'WTF'. Kal would have wore a black suit, polar bears would have guarded the Fortress and Brainiac turning into some spider-creature near the end, that's not all. It was loosely based on the Death Of Superman arc and featured Brainiac as the villain. It would have seen the android team up with Lex to block the sun, to weaken Superman then unleash Doomsday on him.  Superman dies, but is revived by a character based on the Eradicator. Superman rises and defeats the villain, while stating his love for Lois. And one thing, HE DOESN'T FLY.

What the hell was Kevin smoking? Know what, don't answer that. Sandra Bullock, Juliane Moore, Courtney Cox and more were considered for Lois, while the smooth-talking Christopher Walken was gonna be Brainiac plus Chris Rock would have been cast as Jimmy Olsen. Yeah, be thankful you got Returns.


1. Superman V 


Christopher Reeve IS Superman to those who watched the movies when they grew up and he defined the character like no other, but his movies are hit and miss. Superman III was bad; Superman 4 is an abomination but the fifth one, which would have happened, if Reeves had not been striked with tragedy and the delays.

The movie would have seen Superman facing off Brainiac to save the city of Kandor which was shrunk and bottled which was a lost city from Krypton. Plus, the movie had Reeves' Kal die and be reborn. God, Hollywood really wanted to kill of Supes in the movies, huh? The idea died when the rights reverted to Warner Bros.


CONCLUSION


Do you think these movies would have been great or awful? While BVS didn't give us the best Superman (no matter what people say, MOS is my favorite Supes movie, despite the killing of Zod and all, but even that is justified) Henry is aces in my book. What do you think? Sound off in the comments, below. Liked this? Try these:

7 Signs The DC FILMS UNIVERSE Is On The Right Track
4 Ways THE FLASH Movie Can Be Different From The TV Version
4 Reasons The Ultimate Cut Of BATMAN V SUPERMAN Will Kick Ass




 


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LEOSTRATOR
LEOSTRATOR - 6/9/2016, 5:25 AM
Was Nic Cage wearing thongs? That's a no no.
katzb724
katzb724 - 6/9/2016, 6:54 AM
@Jeremius

In Kevin Smith's defense, he was told that Superman could not fly, that he had to fight a giant spider, and a bunch of other things. Basically he was writing a script movie that was already developed by the producers.
TomSolo
TomSolo - 6/11/2016, 10:40 PM
@katzb724 - There is a pretty cool documentary on this movie that is really worth a watch. I think it's called The Death of Superman Lives. The D-bag producer that was demanding most of the ridiculous story elements (Supes can't fly, polar bears, spider-Brainiac) was a former hair dresser for Barbara Streisand. Kevin Smith's reaction to his demands is pretty comical, as well as Burtons. I actually felt bad for Nic Cage, as he was younger and seemed so happy to be Superman, even though he looked so silly. I believe it's on Netflix. If not, I think you can watch or rent it on Amazon Prime. Check it out.
TheHero
TheHero - 6/9/2016, 8:15 AM
Honestly, I liked the Superman Lives script. It felt like, what could've been an Avengers-like movie. One, made by fans, for fans.

And the whole Superman no flying thing, I think that's only in the first act.
Magus
Magus - 6/9/2016, 8:52 AM
@TheHero - I noticed that a lot of stuff from Superman Lives seemingly ended up in Man of Steel. Like the strange organic Krypton with glowing balls, and the prehistoric neanderthal skull with glyphs all over it. Maybe WB designed Krypton without Snyder's input. It was the only part that wasn't totally bleak and depressing in design.
SimplyAz
SimplyAz - 6/9/2016, 8:59 AM
@Magus -

I was surprised that i found the Krypton scenes to be really engaging and actually enjoyed them.
TheHero
TheHero - 6/9/2016, 5:57 PM
@Magus - Yeah, I noticed that too............And Snyder doesn't really talk about those scenes that much.
Maybe he didn't direct that prologue.
SimplyAz
SimplyAz - 6/9/2016, 9:01 AM
@Jeremius

Check out Death of Superman Lives What Happened?
Worth watching and I have to say it did have a few interesting ideas but I think we were saved from a bad SUperman movie

Forthas
Forthas - 6/9/2016, 3:20 PM
@SimplyAz - Agreed...I saw that documentary. It did not look good to me.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 6/10/2016, 3:04 PM
I really liked returns over Amy other superman movie. Or was the superman movie I grew up with and felt it was the most comic accurate superman. Although the movie was dull, its story was pretty solid. Only the kryptonite island was a bit odd. I really wished for a sequel
Mamamartha
Mamamartha - 6/13/2016, 12:37 PM
Superman returns sequel and superman 5 seemed like the only ones that might've been good.
ThunderKat
ThunderKat - 6/18/2016, 12:54 PM
@Jeremius


"Superman V"'s not happening was more due to the delays than Christopher Reeves' accident. You should mention the only reason he made IV is he could be in on the writing. "V" would have happened because he wanted to direct it. Obviously, money makes things happen. IV was so dismal, everyone wanted to pretend it didn't happen. The Nuclear Man actor never got another role...could be coincidence.
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