Superman Lives…Lives?

Begging your pardon if that headline gave you a momentary heart attack…

No, the Tim Burton-directed, Nicolas Cage-starring Superman movie is not going to be made. But if the price is right, a comprehensive movie about it is.

We’ve all seen leaked images over the years, from the one above to pictures of a rainbow-electric costume test and capeless action figure designs. Jon Schnepp, director of many an episode of Metalocalypse and The Venture Brothers, has collected them obsessively, and wants to make a documentary that gathers it all in one place.

Though I suspect that Superman Lives would have made Batman and Robin look like Batman Begins, like Schnapp I do find myself wishing the film had been made. The memes alone would have crushed condescending Willy Wonka right in his Oompa-Loompas. And I’ve read two wildly different drafts of the script – one by Gregory Poirer, which featured Parasite and Silver Banshee for no particular reason save one deus ex machina when, if I recall correctly, Parasite tries to drain Superman’s energy and ends up sucking the Kryptonite poisoning out of him instead; and Kevin Smith’s, which really isn’t as good as you may have expected, though the mandated “gay robot sidekick” named L-Ron would surely have given Scientology fits.

The greatest thing about Schnapp’s proposed movie is that if he gets above and beyond what he’s asking for on Kickstarter, he plans to shoot actual scenes from Superman Lives in a faux-Tim Burton style, mostly using animation. I’m not sure if that’s considered okay under fair use laws, but I want to see it happen.

Here’s his pitch: