What a treat I got today! Took my family to go watch AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON at the local Bob Bullock IMAX here in Austin, Tx… then, after a dinner with them, Father Geek and I headed over to the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz Theater on busy 6th Street for a profoundly early screening of THE DEATH OF “SUPERMAN LIVES”: WHAT HAPPENED?
Jon Schnepp, the director of this immensely super-geeky SUPERMAN documentary about the weirdest fucking SUPERMAN project of all time… SUPERMAN LIVES.
SUPERMAN LIVES was that Nick Cage and Tim Burton project that got frighteningly close to reality. They were looking at Sandra Bullock for Lois Lane, Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen, Christopher Walken for Braniac and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor… back in 1999. This was back in the Era where Warner Brothers was releasing Cinematic Farts on a regular schedule that folks fanned away from in droves.
At the project’s best was with KEVIN SMITH’S screenplay, which would’ve out Marvel Universed what MARVEL has been doing, by creating a very elaborate and full D.C. universe.
The project imploded a mere handful of weeks before it was supposed to begin shooting. MILLIONS & MILLIONS & MILLIONS were spent. It was a project that nearly was. So close. It almost happened.
At that time, I was reading scripts like a crazed maniac – and the drafts just kept getting weirder and bizarre. The leaked images that got out though felt like a trainwreck beyond much of anything we see today. But the artwork seemed to hold promise.
But it died. We’ll never see the film – and to Jon Schnepp… that just isn’t right. He was captivated by the notion of a Tim Burton SUPERMAN LIVES… I mean, the film had everything going for it in terms of designers, artists, a host of writers… but with Jon Peters producing and Lorenzo DiBonaventura running Warner Brothers… Burton had a stacked deck. BUT – that was just what looking from the outside was telling me.
Jon Schnepp dug deep, fought for interviews – and at the end of the day – he’s got everyone but Nicholas Cage and Terry Semel on camera… and the Jon Peters shit… You won’t fucking believe!
You’ll watch this Doc and you might think that Schnepp hired someone to play like they’re Jon Peters… because you know all those stories that Kevin Smith has told about working on SUPERMAN LIVES… Here – we get a whole lot more. Oh – and directly from Jon Peters in what may be the most amazing interview of the man I’ve ever seen. He’s… everybit the character I’ve heard, but watching him on this doc… the shit he says. It’s coo coo for Cocoa Puffs!
Wait till you see Jon talk about Spiders and Polar Bears! Wait till you see Jon call Kevin Smith an amateur writer! Wait till you hear about his immense manly street brawls! It is extraordinary.
Beyond that curtain pulling back interview with Professor Marvel, Schnepp has shined a light on the amazing work and crazy awesome attempts to create things that we’ve never really seen on film. When you see Burton’s KRYPTON, BRANIAC’S SKULL SHIP or the MENAGERIE OF ALIEN MONSTERS!!!
Even better? The video footage of the various test costumes for both SUPERMAN and CLARK KENT with Cage. I have to say, I’d fucking kill to see Cage’s Clark… his take was so different. The many many many costumes for SUPERMAN, including that crazy iridescent disco-light-up number… and you will learn what that particular costume was meant for – and it would’ve amounted to less than 2 minutes of the total screentime.
Then – wait till you see Christopher Walken BRANIAC designs – or when his BRANIAC and Kevin Spacey’s LEX LUTHOR were going to become THE THING WITH TWO HEADS!
Seriously – you just will cry when it is over, just imagining that we could collectively stare at this thing realized and wondering… was it going to be a beautiful disaster or would Tim Burton have managed to tightrope walk the project to great success?
We’ll never know – but in this crazy Doc – you’ll see Cage’s ILM Flight Test! Crazy man.
The film is coming out JULY 9th – and when it does, you can bet we’ll all be jumping up and down letting you know how and where to see it. You’ll see an immense amount of incredibly talented work going on throughout the production. THE DEATH OF “SUPERMAN LIVES”: WHAT HAPPENED? is one of those geek documentaries that no fan should go without seeing.
Why?
Because it will absolutely provide you with an idea of how much hard work goes into movies that never even make it to the silver screen. Watch this and JODOROWSKY’S DUNE to truly get a feeling for some of the lost wonders of cinema that never was.
