In 1998, five years after Warner Bros. so excitedly embarked on developing a new Superman movie, the studio closed the production offices of “Superman Lives.” By this point, designs had been finalized, costumes created, and even sets built. Tim Burton had chosen Pittsburgh as the basis for his Metropolis, and the script was seemingly finally in a place that Warners, Peters, and the toy companies were happy enough with. So, what was the final nail in the coffin? Well, there were several elements at play beyond the already troubled production.
“Batman & Robin,” a film which Kevin Feige thinks is one of the most important comic book movies ever made, arrived in 1998 to a poor reception from fans and critics. Joel Schumacher’s extended toy commercial was met with derision and looked as though it had killed off the Batman franchise for good. That didn’t exactly inspire confidence in Warner Bros., which was taking a similarly “toyetic” approach with its Superman movie. What’s more, the late ’90s saw Warners take a safer approach to moviemaking, with co-chairman Terry Semel announcing that the studio would avoid “event” movies and focus on mid-budget fare in an attempt to, well, not go broke — I know you think the worst is over for Warner Bros., David Zaslav, but are you listening? The long-gestating Superman movie simply didn’t fit into that picture.
Meanwhile, it seems even after Wesley Strick worked his magic on the script, the executives still weren’t totally convinced. By that point, the screenplay had been reworked so much that the budget had already gone way beyond any reasonable point, and as Warner Bros. co-chairman Bob Daly said (via “The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made”), “We didn’t have a script we loved, and the budget was too high. When the budget started getting out of control, that’s when we decided to pull the plug.”
In Strick’s recollection, however, Semel read his script and “reacted violently against it.” According to the writer, there was “a level of nervousness and second-guessing” surrounding the project throughout its development, which essentially ensured Warners was never going to be completely comfortable with any script. In that sense, “Superman Lives,” much like “The Flash” and its awful Nic Cage cameo, was sort of doomed from the outset.
