The following interview with Smith chronicles his efforts to write the film. It is a fascinating inside look at the development of a hoped-for blockbuster “event” film. This is only the first part of the interview. Part two will be posted tomorrow (Saturday) and part three on Sunday. And on Monday we’ve got a bit of a surprise for fans of the Man of Steel.
VOICES FROM KRYPTON: So, how did a nice, independent filmmaker like you become involved in a mega-million dollar budget Hollywood production?
KEVIN SMITH: I was called into a meeting at Warner Bros. about a few different projects that were up for grabs. One of them was Superman, but we always assumed that that was a long shot. There was a Beetlejuice sequel and a movie called Architects of Fear, based on an old Outer Limits episode, which was one of the big plot points in Watchmen -- scientists want to bond the world together by presenting an alien invader, so they're building this alien invader. They had a script for it that they felt didn't work. I read it and felt there was nothing I could do with it. Beetlejuice I figured leave well enough alone. But Superman was one that I was kind of intrigued by, because of my love for comic books and because I read the script they were working from at that time and hated it. It's not like Greg Poiret is a miserable writer, it's just that he was so out of his depth and he knew nothing about the character, nothing about comic books. It was just kind of cheese. I went in for a meeting with Tracy Barone, who works over at Jon Peters' company, an exec at Warner Bros. They had read the script for Chasing Amy and really loved it and assumed since I knew something about comics -- there were a few comic book references in my flicks so far -- that I would be worth talking to about Superman.
So we had this big lunch where we sat down and talked about the script and I said, "Look, the script is really, really bad. It's a disservice and injustice to people who have been fans of the character for years, and just a disservice to the character himself to go forward and make this movie. What you're really looking at is if you make a Superman movie, people will show up. You're bound to make a hundred million regardless. Why not make a good one? Don't throw it away on this. It's embarrassing, it's everything that's wrong with comic book movies. There's just no understanding of Superman or the characters. It's just too campy. I'm not lobbying for the job here. Hire me or don't hire me, just don't make this script." I was thanked for my input and that was that. I figured if nothing else, maybe I threw down some words that would make them think twice before they went forward. It was an atrocity. This character is sixty years old. Don't make a movie where nobody's going to care that he's sixty years old, because obviously Hollywood can't do anything with him had they made that movie. I thought that was it; I had blown my chance but at least I was honest with them.
I got a call back and had a meeting with more Warner executives and they said, "Tell them what you told us." So I went through my whole rap again. I did that about two more times. Eventually I met with Jon Peters and Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a great guy, smart guy. And Jon Peters, who isn't a really great guy or smart guy. I was fascinated by meeting Jon Peters because this was the guy who produced Batman and to hear him tell the story you wouldn't think that Tim Burton meant anything to Batman. He says stuff like, "You know the reason that Batman worked? You know that alleyway scene where he's fighting those sword-bearing guys and they're attacking him? Those guys were real swordsmen; that's why that movie made like $300 million." I was like, "Oh, really? All you need is real swordsmen to make a film such a hit?" But both of them dug on me, I guess. Jon's take was more from the gut than anything else, and way off base, too. He said, "You know why you and me are going to get this project right and make a great movie? Because you and me understand Superman; we're from the streets." I was like, "You were a hairdresser once, I'm from the suburbs. Neither of us are from the streets."
Lorenzo took the more intellectual approach with it. Doesn't claim to know everything about comics but does know a few things and asked the right questions. When I was talking about the history and Superman being jettisoned from Krypton by his parents in a rocket, he said, "Well, why didn't Jor-El just build a rocket big enough for his whole family?" I was like, "Well...I don't know." He said that these were the kind of things that you want to address, as well as some fundamental questions that you want to attack. He forced me to work a little harder and not to just fall back on all the comics I had collected over the years. He got it, too; he understood where I was going with it. We got along well. I even got along with Peters most of the time. He had kooky ideas and sometimes you had to reign him in and say, "You don't want to do that," but sometimes you have to succumb to the stupidity, like having Brainiac fight polar bears in the Antarctic when he goes to the Fortress of Solitude. It's embarrassing. He was always saying that Brainiac should give Luthor a space dog; something from that menagerie of his. He gives Luthor a dog, Luthor is afraid of the dog and the dog hates him. I'm like, "It doesn't really lend to the story, why do you want that?" "Because I need a Chewie." This was during the time of Star Wars' rerelease and he said, "Chewie's cuddly, man, you could make a toy out of him, so you've got to give me dog." It's something I fought the whole time and finally I guess I won him over with, "Look, Jon, you don't need a Chewie." He's forever influenced by the things he's seen.
He went to see Chasing Amy at the premiere in Los Angeles, and the next day he said, "That gay black guy in your movie did an excellent job, that's what we need in Superman. We need that kind of attitude; that voice. What about L-Ron, can't he have a voice like that? Can't he be gay? I want a gay R2D2." I was thinking that this man is either the most progressive individual in films today or just a flat out idiot. It's a real thin line. I won some battles, I lost some. We had a great time doing it, the studio loved the script. Early on in the process I was talking to one exec about who would possibly direct and I suggested Tim Burton. They said, "Nah, Tim doesn't have the right kind of sensibility for this movie", and I said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, Tim's kind of dark and this movie's not about darkness, although the movie is set in darkness." Lo and behold, right before I turned in my second draft all of a sudden Tim Burton comes to Warner Bros. where he's made Mars Attacks! which went right in the shitter and he wants to do a sure thing. At one point he was thinking about doing Scooby Doo, but they handed him the script for Superman, the one I'd done, and he dug on it. It was great for the studio because they had a script they liked and had worked on for a while, and they had a director who had made them over half a billion dollars previously on a super hero franchise. Everything was looking rosy.
The view would be changing soon enough.