Movies That Were Supposed to Reboot Franchises (But Didn’t): Superman Returns

https://lebeauleblog.com/2021/02/23/movies-that-were-supposed-to-reboot-franchises-but-didnt-superman-returns/

The superhero movie genre that currently dominates the box office started with Superman: the Movie released in 1978. Richard Donner cast an unknown Christopher Reeve as the iconic hero. Reeve’s performance along with practical effects and a soaring score from John Williams made audiences believe a man could fly. But the series quickly stumbled as behind-the-scenes squabbles resulted in Donner being replaced. Reeve portrayed Superman for the fourth and final time in the dismal Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987.

Nearly two decades later, Warner Brothers thought they had scored a major victory when the managed to lure the director of the hit X-Men movies away from a rival studio to reboot Superman. The result was the weirdest solo Superman movie to date.

Christopher Reeve was open to the idea of reprising the role of the Man of Steel in a fifth movie under the right circumstances. The actor agreed to starring in the fourth movie in exchange for creative control. But the budget for the sequel was slashed as Cannon Films faced bankruptcy. Reeve was burned by the experience and would only don the cape again if he could be certain of the quality of the fifth feature.

After Cannon dissolved, the film rights to Superman reverted to Ilya and Alexander Salkind who had produced the first three movies and the Supergirl spin-off. Despite the phenomenal success of Batman in 1989, the Salkinds never approached Reeve with any series offers. Instead, they sold the rights back to Warner Brothers in 1993. Any potential for a fifth film starring Reeve as Superman died two years later when the actor was paralyzed in a horse riding accident.

One of the more infamous attempts to revive the character was Superman Lives. Director Kevin Smith was asked to write the screenplay for Batman producer Jon Peters. Peters had very specific ideas of what his Superman movie should be like. For one, Superman wouldn’t fly. He also wouldn’t wear the recognizable blue and red costume. And also, he had to fight a giant spider.

Eventually director Tim Burton came along and did away with Smith’s draft of the script. Nicolas Cage was cast as a very alien Superman who would have been an outsider in the Tim Burton mold. The production got far enough along that Cage tried on some pretty out there Superman costumes. Ultimately the plug got pulled when Warner Brothers balked at the $100 million dollar budget.

Following the failure of back-to-back superhero movies Batman and Robin and Steel in 1997, Warner Brothers cooled on the idea of making more movies featuring comic book characters. They figured the Batman trend had run its course. Meanwhile, Marvel movies like Blade and the X-Men were quietly taking the genre in new directions. In 2002, Spider-man became the highest-grossing movie of the year and suddenly Warner Brothers was interested in Superman again.

Eager to get their flagship superhero back on the big screen, Warner Brothers commissioned two competing projects. The first pit Superman against Batman with director Wolfang Petersen attached. The other was J.J. Abrams’ infamous Superman: Flyby. When the script for Flyby leaked, fans were outraged by deviations from the source material like Krypton not blowing up and Lex Luthor being a Kryptonian sleeper agent.

Of the two concepts, Flyby got much closer to being filmed. Several directors came and went but Brett Ratner and McG were the most likely candidates. Henry Cavill was a front-runner to play the Man of Steel years before he actually landed the role. Future Lois Lane Amy Adams also auditioned for the part she would later play.

In fact, there’s a lot about Flyby that would feel familiar. The script was meant to set up a Superman trilogy. It played up the sci-fi elements with lots of Kryptonian warfare. It also included a death and resurrection angle although in Flyby Superman wasn’t killed by Doomsday. One scene which survived Abrams’ script involved Superman rescuing Air Force One.

As with Superman Lives, Warner Brothers got cold feet over the budget. The script was influenced by popular trends of the time. There were Matrix-esque Kryptonian ninjas and Lord of the Rings-style battle scenes. A second draft attempted to reign in the budget but apparently it wasn’t enough to keep the project going.

But that didn’t mean the studio had given up on the idea of making a Superman movie. When Flyby was still in development, director Bryan Singer expressed interest in the project. While he wasn’t familiar with the comics, Singer was a big fan of Richard Donner’s original movie. Donner’s wife, Lauren Shuler Donner, was a producer on Singer’s X-Men movies. During the making of the second X-Men movie, he approached the Donners with his idea for Superman Returns and they encouraged him to take it to Warner Brothers.