While director Kevin Smith has been on a roll lately with DC TV content, his ideas haven't always worked out for the best. Years before we got Zack Snyder's reinvention of Superman in Man of Steel, Smith worked on the script for Superman Lives, a reboot that would have seen Tim Burton direct and Nicholas Cage star as the titular hero. The film was shelved several times, never making out out of development hell.
In a recent Facebook Live Q&A, Smith supported the notion of Superman Lives being reworked into an animated feature along with the cast that was originally planned, specifically with Cage as Superman and Michael Rooker as Lex Luthor. “I’m not going to lie, that would be fun to see," Smith said. "That’s something I worked on 20 years ago at this point, so that would be really amazing to kind of see, like they turn it into a cartoon and get the people to do the voices. Nic Cage is still around and stuff. And I wanted Michael Rooker for my Lex Luthor so that would be amazing. Um, but, you know, I’m game."
The director cautioned, however, that a decision to release a project like that would be up to Warner Bros. in the end "That ain’t up to me kids. That’s up to the good folks at Warner Bros. and stuff, but if they were ever to call and say hey we want to do a cartoon version of that Superman script we wrote, believe me I’d be like (melts), that’d be dope man. You know you close all loops in life, one way or another, and that would be a nice way to close that loop.”
Would you ever want to see Superman Lives resurface in animated form? Sound off below!
About The Author:
Matt is a graduate of the Ryerson University School of Journalism, and has been a fan of superheroes since he picked up his first comic book issue as a child. While he works as a professional musician, Matt has a massive passion for comic books, films and heroes, along with participating in discussion and debate with the CBM community.