Making films is never a sure thing, no matter how big the studio and property, and plenty of great ideas never make it to screens. Superheroes, particularly Superman, have had more of this than most and some of the abandoned projects have become legendary in their own rights. Should I ever find access to parallel worlds, I will make sure to find realities where these films were made and review them here, especially if they're really good or really bad. Anyway, here's a quick look at some of these "Could Have Beens", you can find more online if you're particularly keen on any of them.
Superman Lives
Fun fact, Nic Gage played Superman in Teen Titans GO! To The Movies because of how notorious this project became when Kevin Smith started doing comedy lectures. I personally think it would have been worth watching, even to see the iconoclastic Cage take on a very 1990s Man of Steel. With a Kevin Smith script it would have at least been unique, even with the infamous "giant robot spider" sequence. Just how connected Superman Lives would have been to the Donner films is debatable, but I imagine we'd be referring to it as a "soft reboot" if the film had existed. For the record, I like Cage as an actor, despite the many poor films he has been in, and I'd watch him play Superman quite happily. Maybe Earth 2 somewhere down the line?
Batman Meets Godzilla
Adam West, Burt Ward and Godzilla? Yes this almost happened, and the fact that it didn't is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of superhero film-making. Here's how this madness happens; it's the 1970s, Batman is doing killer numbers in syndication and Godzilla is enjoying his second boom, so some Japanese film executives reach out to their American counterparts and try to get a joint venture going. I have no doubt that the finished product would have been extremely silly and played for comedy, but I'm also certain it would have been amazing. The intended plot was to have Batman and Robin traveling to Japan to help the authorities deal with yet another Godzilla attack and at least one of their villains would have been involved. Sadly, the whole project was deemed too expensive and it never happened, but I'll live the rest of my life dreaming of what could have been.
Shin Godzilla Vs Evangelion
As the director of both Shin Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno is clearly slightly mad in the best way, so, of course, he's trying to get a crossover off the ground. Now, it's probably unfair for me to say that this idea won't get made now in 2020, but I'm taking a guess that no studio is going to want to take on something simultaneously so expensive and so weird. If we're lucky we'll get a Manga and maybe a Netflix Anime in a few years time. Still, body-horror Kaiju meets mother-issues mecha sounds like a very interesting film, if not a particularly popular one.
Superman Returns Sequel
As I've discussed previously, I really like Superman Returns and would rate it as one of the best Superman films to date. Sadly, no one else really enjoyed it and the sequel was scrapped during pre-production. And it would have been great too! Superman fights Brainiac, and has to fight his son, who has gone rogue and is destroying the planet with his emerging superpowers. It's about loss, family and responsibility, with Superman having to put the safety and needs of others above those of himself and his loved ones. Yes, it turns out Bryan Singer is a garbage person, but I would have loved this film and be defending it online against people who probably didn't get what it was going for. Hey, at least we could have a Superman villain in a film who wasn't Luthor or Zod.
No comments:
Post a Comment