Tim Burton's Superman Lives Would Have Been the Most Insane Superman Ever! Help Get the Documentary Made!

Of all the films that never came to fruition, one of the ones that piques my interest the most is Tim Burton's ill-fated and allegedly batshit insane Superman Lives, starring Nicolas Cage in the title role and based on a draft by Kevin Smith. In recent years we've begun to see costume designs/tests and production art leak from the doomed project including bizarre, transparent rainbow coloured costumes and a giant skull-shaped ship. Well now director and producer Jon Schnepp (Metalocalypse, Grimm Fairy Tales) is hoping to bring all this material together to create the definitive documentary, The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?, hopefully including cast and crew interviews and, budget permitting, even recreating a couple of key scenes via contemporary special effects.

Say what you will about the odd-casting and blatant diversions from Superman's history, but this film at least would have had Braniac, Doomsday and all sorts of large scale, crazy science fiction shenanigans unlike anything we've seen in the films that were released. All Superman Returns had was a real estate scam and a bastard kid! Superman Lives would have really made an impact.

You should, at the very least, watch the four minute video below which contains a pretty mind-blowing montage of Superman Lives production art and tests. It's wacky and lurid and I guarantee it will win you over. It kills me that we never got to see this...

You can help make this project happen by pledging to Jon's Kickstarter campaign. It's an ambitious project and he still has a way to go, but I would love to see this one succeed!