I assure you that was a real design. Over at the Facebook page for the upcoming Man Of Steel movie, (h/t Toyark) a series of pictures were posted of old toy designs for Superman Lives.
If you’ll recall, this was Tim Burton’s attempt to create a Superman movie, with Nicholas Cage playing Superman–and Wikipedia says it was based on a script by Kevin Smith? Talk about the three worst things you can do to Superman! Thankfully, this never happened. Just because a director made a good Batman movie, that doesn’t mean he can make a good Superman movie. Sadly, this is a lesson Warner Bros. has failed to grasp, as we have Christopher Nolan on the latest Superflick. (This actually may prove that a good Batman director may actually be the WORST choice for Superman since they’re polar opposites. Again, I couldn’t write a decent Batman series, but I think I’d do pretty good with Superman and I enjoy both properties.)
Actually, the more I look over the Wikipedia entry for this move, the more I think I need to write an article on this.
Let’s also be honest with ourselves. Everyone knows Nic Cage as Superman would be a disaster, but Kevin Smith writing him would be an even bigger joke; I don’t care how big a Smith fan you are. There are more and you can go to the Facebook page to see them, and a few other revelations, like Woody Harrleson was set to play Jor-El. Wow, if this had existed it would have made Superman IV AND Superman Returns look better in comparison. Even one of the toy designers chimes in to say he was glad this never happened.
(Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Zac Snyder, who by the way did Watchmen, which is even farther from Superman than Batman, had these put up to say “hey, our costume isn’t as bad as these ideas”. Maybe, but it’s still a terrible Superman outfit, guys.)
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