SUPERMAN LIVES: Chris Rock On Not Getting The Chance To Play Jimmy Olsen In Tim Burton's Scrapped Movie

SUPERMAN LIVES: Chris Rock On Not Getting The Chance To Play Jimmy Olsen In Tim Burton's Scrapped Movie

Spiral star Chris Rock has opened up on how close he came to playing Jimmy Olsen in Tim Burton's ill-fated Superman Lives, pointing out that he feels like a superhero movie role has now passed him by...

By JoshWilding - Sep 19, 2021 05:09 AM EST
Filed Under: Superman
Source: THR (via Yahoo Entertainment)

There's a lot of uncertainty regarding Superman's big screen future, and it's sadly looking increasingly unlikely that we'll get to see more of Henry Cavill's Man of Steel moving forward. That's something fans are likely to talk about for years to come, though we're not sure that story will have the same sort of staying power as the chatter that still surrounds Tim Burton's Superman Lives

Nicolas Cage was set to take on the role of Kal-El, while it had been rumoured that Christopher Walken would suit up as Brainiac for what would have surely been one of his most unique performances. Chris Rock, meanwhile, was being eyed to play Superman's best pal, Jimmy Olsen. 

During a recent interview, the actor finally opened up on the scrapped project and admitted to being disappointed that he missed out on joining the DC Universe. 

"I was cast in Superman 20 years ago, when Nic Cage was going to play Superman. I was cast; I had wardrobe fittings," Rock revealed in a THR roundtable (via Yahoo Entertainment). "I saw the miniature sets, and I was hanging out with [director] Tim [Burton], and the whole thing fell apart. There’s a part of me that’s like, where’s my superhero movie? I was this close."

While he admits that playing Jimmy "doesn't really attract me right now," it sounds like Rock might be a fan of the genre, and there's bound to be a role for him in either the Marvel or DC Universe! 

Superman Lives did reach the pre-production stage, but as the budget started to spiral out of control, Warner Bros. decided not to move forward with what sounds like one extremely weird movie. In the years that have followed, we've heard various rumours about an animated adaptation or Cage showing up for a cameo role in something like The Flash, but there's been no solid signs that it's actually going to happen.

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Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 9/19/2021, 6:24 AM
I actually think he would have been a good Jimmy back in the day I can totally see it
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 9/19/2021, 6:36 AM
For those who havnt watched the documentary about this film, go watch it. I genuinely think it would have been an amazing film.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 9/19/2021, 9:23 AM
@Twenty23Three - When I first heard about this film I thought "Oh no, that's a terrible idea. Superman's not dark and he's not Nic Cage." In the ensuing years since, with all the BTS tidbits coming out, I had a morbid fascination with it...
But after seeing Jon Schnepp's epic 'The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened', I have become truly enamoured and even almost enchanted by the ghost of the whole project.

Nic Cage and Tim Burton's reinvention of Clark Kent was inspired.
In the 1930s and '40s, Schuster and Seigel based Clark Kent on themselves; A nerdy, unassuming, mild-mannered, pencil-pusher. But today, that particular kind of character of Clark Kent doesn't exist. Today, that version of Clark Kent can best be described as metro-sexual, old-fashioned or a rich business type.

So it kinda loses the original intent of the kind of character that Seigal and Shuster were going for.

But Cage's Clark Kent brings that original intent back. He's a 1990s type geek. He's what Jon Schnepp (director of said documentary) would describe as a sweaty. He's an oddball, a typical Burtonesque, insular misfit.

He wears disastrous, fashion ensembles and is completely hapless and unaware when assholes on the street yell something at him to point this out.
He's nervous, he doesn't fit in, he lives in his own head. I love it. I love that Clark Kent. And his Superman makes sense as him finally being who he truly is inside. A good person, wrapped in the safety blanket of his birth-culture, flying above it all, being free.

I'm gonna say it:
Tim Burton and Nic Cage's Superman is my favorite version of Superman.
Reeds2Much
Reeds2Much - 9/19/2021, 6:46 AM
Wait. So we missed out on a Nic Cage and Chris Rock movie directed by Tim Burton? Are we sure the world didn't end and we're just in Hell?
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