Schnepp purports a multitude of reasons for the ‘90s Superman failure, while sharing anecdotes and art from designers, producers, and Burton and Kevin themselves. But that was 2008, when the market for these films were about to explode, not 1998 when Kevin Costner’s films nearly blew up studios. Jeff Bridges told us so in regards to Iron Man. Lord knows tons of comic book movies have gotten by critically and commercially without scripts. To echo one of the Comic-Con talking heads interviewed, The Death of “Superman Lives” is like a high-level game of “what if?” Maybe this could have been a cool movie.

Can a man that is in every essence perfect have flaws? Anxieties? A robot sidekick with rejuvenating powers that would have cost a mint for Industrial Light and Magic to articulate? Everyone that worked on Superman Lives for a couple of well-publicized years in the late ‘90s seemed to think so.

The comic movie was meant to be a hip, unexpected take about the death and rebirth of DC Comics’ most beloved, kinda bland hero. With this new doc, Schnepp wants to make an omnibus out of a 20-year-old rumor mill. “Fiercest killers in the animal kingdom,” Smith and even Peters reiterate here. Director Kevin Smith somewhat immortalized the fiasco film in his uninhibited stand-up bit about producer Jon Peter’s insistence on adding spiders and polar bears to Superman Lives’ screenplay.

Over the years, pictures of Nic Cage in a Superman suit have popped up online and the Superman Lives Wikipedia page is bursting with notes on productions. The film features a cavalcade of talking heads involved with the production, fabulous production art, and almost regret-inducing home videos. The neat documentary The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? provides ample archival material and funny interviews as director and Supes fanboy Jon Schnepp digs into one of the most popular stories of development hell in Hollywood history. But that’s the thing with comic books: There’s always a demand for more stories. That fact alone is interesting enough pub trivia. Or was it Superman Reborn? Regardless, Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage’s angst-addled, alienated take on the Man of Steel came very close to being released in the summer of 1998.

Expensive development, aesthetic over-compensation, a studio already licking too many financial wounds: That is what happened to Superman Lives.

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