When DC Comics killed Superman in the 90s, Nicolas Cage was cast as the superhero in an unproduced movie adaptation titled Superman Lives. Now for the first time, you can see in Cage suiting up in the definitive documentary The Death of “Superman Lives”; What Happened?
The never before seen footage has been dubbed the “holy grail” by the film’s director, Jon Schnepp. It includes Cage flexing in a skin-tight muscle suit and the infamous Resuscitation Suit that Superman only wears briefly assures Schnepp.
“Two minutes. Two minutes in the movie. Inside some kind of weird neutrino liquid bath, you’d see this electric stuff,” Schnepp emphatically explained. “That’s it. That’s all you would have seen. It wasn’t him flying around with a rainbow suit.”
Schnepp interviews cast and crew including Comic Book Men’s Kevin Smith, the original screenwriter, and director Tim Burton, who wasn’t a “comics geek” notes production designer Rick Heinrichs. Burton wanted to deconstruct the Superman mythos. It would focus on how Superman’s alien roots make him an outsider. Everyone involved seems to agree Burton’s take on Superman would have been out of this world.
The Death of “Superman Lives”; What Happened? release date: July 9
