Any time a superhero’s ever been cast in a movie, you’re all-but-guaranteed to hear some amount of controversy and commotion amongst fans. The jury may still be out on whether Ryan Reynolds and his abs were better suited to Hal Jordan or Wade Wilson, but that discussion got G-Man and I thinking about some of the more memorable might-have-beens. Like how Green Lantern was about this close to being played by Jack Black in 2004, or how Common and Armie Hammer (the “Winklevi” in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, and the new Lone Ranger) were days away from play GL and Batman in the cancelled JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. You can’t get much more unforgettable than the notion of Nicolas Cage as Superman, though. With a reboot coming right around the corner for the man of steel, we figured it’d be fun to look at the big movie that was supposed to come in 1998.

21 years separated the releases of SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE and SUPERMAN RETURNS, and that’s a copious amount of time for every possible idea to be considered. And I do mean every possible idea, from Christopher Reeve reprising the role to fight Dudley Moore as Mr. Mxysptlk around the Bottled City of Kandor to a hexalogy that’d focus individual movies on villains like Silver Banshee. The most fascinating unrealized iteration, however, had to be one that involved Kevin Smith, Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage. It would’ve alternately been titled SUPERMAN LIVES or SUPERMAN REBORN.

As you probably sensed from the title, the proposed movie would’ve been an adaptation of the seminal DEATH OF SUPERMAN story arc. Of course, turning a sixth-month-long crossover into a single movie requires some significant trimming, so almost all of the REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN portion that pertained to Superboy, Steel and Hank Henshaw would’ve been removed. Doomsday was be siced on Supes by Brainiac as part of an elaborate scheme to get a hold of the highly powerful Kryptonian weapon, the Eradicator. Instead of taking over Supes' identity for a while, this Eradicator would fulfill its mission by resurrecting him in an alien suit that would ultimately make him powerful enough to vanquish these foes.

If you’ve ever watched or even just listened to one of Kevin Smith's his public speaking “evenings,” you’ve liked heard some of the more amusing anecdotes about this project’s behind-the-scenes development. You can hear the whole story from the man himself here(SALTY LANGUAGE ALERT) but the most eyebrow-raising portion's about the list of rules Smith had to follow for the script...

1. Superman couldn’t fly.
2. Superman had to wear “90’s looking” black costume.
3. Superman had to fight a giant spider at the end.

After a couple drafts, Smith parted ways with the project once Tim Burton signed on to direct and brought his own crew of writers. It’s doubtful we’ll ever see his unused script turned into a comic as has happened with THE GREEN HORNET and SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, but it is widely available online. The project continued for a while without his involvement, and even got to the point where Nicolas Cage had a costume fitted and several builds of Superman’s Eradicator-charged armor were built by Steve Johnson’s Edge FX special effects house.

A while back, Johnson open his vaults and posted some videos of that suit in action. Watch it below…

Producer Jon Peters reportedly wanted Cage for the roll because he thought he’d be the first actor to play Superman who anybody would immediately believe is from another planet. Interpret that as you will. I imagine he’d be the biggest Superman fan to ever play the character if this project did actually ever go through, though. You suspect a lot of lead actors pay comics lip service by saying they’re big fans, but Cage actually had a multi-million dollar collection comics that included ACTION COMICS #1. He even named one his sons Kal-El (seriously,) so I nobody can question the man’s sincerity about his fandom.

Thus concludes are brief look at the SUPERMAN movie that could’ve been. Are you maniacs relieved that this radical reinterpretation of Supes' mythos never got off the ground, or would you have liked to have seen it touch down in some way or another?

So glad a Nic Cage Superman movie didnt happen

I read about the Nick Cage one a while ago and could not believe something that horrible almost made it.  
 
Thank God we never got it..whats this about Jack BLack as Green Lantern? Please fill me in someone.
 

Whomever thought that:

Nick has had some good movies. But for every good movie he's done, he's also done complete abominations!!! I have a feeling this one would fall into the latter.

This is the best thing that never happened. 

NICHOLAS CAGE?? SUPERMAN??? .........NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE GOD NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would have been much worse than Superman Returns.

This is the best thing that never happened. 

It's kind of funny that the mannequin near the end looks like Nic Cage.

If I'm not mistaken, from what I remember, when Kevin Smith initially asked Jon Peters who he would want top lay Superman, Peters said Sean Penn. And Kevin Smith's follow up question was "...Spicoli?" Seriously though everything about that movie would have been crap and only because they just didn't give Smith enough of the control.

Hollywood Exec: "no no no.... not JUST shoulder armor. LIGHT UP shoulder armor. its teh future baby."
 
 
 
 
(facepalm)

I shall tell this tale often, to scare my children before bedtime.

Thankfully the embodiment of the average Joe did not get the job...btw am i the only one who thinks he looks a little like Ronnie James Dio (RIP) in that shot?

  Kevin Smith talks about Superman.  It's long but Smith really knows how to tell a good story.  The tale might be long but worth it, can't recommend this story enough.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad this didn't happen.

hmmm from the looks of the nic cage pic alone.... 
 
Superman doesn't 
  Get high  
    - OR - 
  Go bald 
 
#justsaying

not with tim burton behind the camera, it would have been interesting to see how he would have done ghost rider though

  Kevin Smith talks about Superman.  It's long but Smith really knows how to tell a good story.  The tale might be long but worth it, can't recommend this story enough.

Big Daddy is the closest thing to superhero Nick Cage should EVER play!

Well, I think most of us can say we're glad these didn't happen. 
Now it's your move, Snyder.

So glad a Nic Cage Superman movie didnt happen

Barf----Kevin Smith really hated working with Burton so much so---that when he signs a script--he writes "F*&$ Tim Burton" on it!

I think Mad TV did a parody of "Leaving Las Vegas" called "Leaving Metropolis".
 
There was also a serious movie called Leaving Metropolis, which was (according to Wikipedia) "set against the backdrop" of the years between Supe's revealing his identity to hid death at Doomsday's hands. "The events in the comics parallel events in the lives of the characters."

 
He already ruined Ghost Rider! so why not Superman? -_-

@Moomin123: Cage is one of those actors who usually plays himself and not the character (See Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern). This does not work in comic book movies, except with maybe Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

@.o0Johnny0o. said:

Kevin Smith talks about Superman. It's long but Smith really knows how to tell a good story. The tale might be long but worth it, can't recommend this story enough.

awesome :-D

Thankfully the embodiment of the average Joe did not get the job...btw am i the only one who thinks he looks a little like Ronnie James Dio (RIP) in that shot?

Oh, The Horror.

Nick needs to pick a genre for movies and stick with it!! Every time i tun on the TV he is in a new movie!

I've seen this before, and watched the Smith talk and even now it doesn't seem any better, strange directions they took in the 90's. Glad this never came into being.

No, no no no no. NO to Cage being in any more movies ever again. The only one I could tolerate him in was Matchstick Men. He makes my eyes and ears bleed.

Yeah I read about this on Cracked.com a while back.

Jim Carrey was in talk for the role of Brainiac. So was Tim Allen.
For the Burton version

oh dear GOD thank you this never got made.

Nic Cage should play every role in every movie.

I can imagine how he will looks - REALLY BAD

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