Watch The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? For Free

Waste of Money.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I've been a fan of Jon Schnepp for a long time. I've watched him on AMC/Collider Movie talk for years now. In the world of comic-book "sweaties", he is the cream of the crop. The man's knowledge spans decades and just about every comic-book character you can possibly imagine. But he also has background knowledge in filmmaking and animation, so I trust him his ability in more than one area. The fact that he made a documentary about the failure of one of the most mysterious superhero projects of all time, "Superman Lives", was immensely intriguing.I'm not entirely sure why it took me so long to sit down and check it out, however. I preordered the blu-ray the day it became available, but I just kept forgetting to watch it. Well, I'm glad I finally did. "The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?" is one of the most fascinating films I have ever seen. Schnepp devoted years to figure out what kind of a film this was going to be and why in the world it didn't happen. The final product definitely gives you a visual and thematic idea of this film, but perhaps more time could have been taken to tackle why it didn't happen.The amount of information that Schnepp was able to gather whilst delivering it at a brilliant pace is uncanny. Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen? Courteney Cox, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, or Sandra Bullock as Lois Lane? Not to mention the legitimate casting of Nicolas Cage as Superman? This is information that the casual comic-book fan probably didn't know, and Schnepp covers it all. But it isn't just the obscure casting, it's the enormous spider, the version of Lex and Brainiac combining, or the idea of Superman not flying are all things that were considered by producers for the failed film. Pretty much everything about the comic was flipped or altered for this film.I think this documentary is important to keep in mind, especially considering how lucky we are in this age of superhero films. A film this strange and this much of a departure from the comic, would never be made today. At the same time, this documentary made me immeasurably interested in how big of a bomb this movie could have been. I want to see this film. I know it will never happen, but I would totally be down to see this insane project. Ultimately, practical reasons, including a spiraling budget, ruined the film's chances. But this could have been an all-time guilty-pleasure. 3 weeks from production!Overall, I learned a ton of random knowledge with Schnepp's documentary. I also learned that just because someone is in position of power (Jon Peters), doesn't mean they know what's right. I'm sorry but some of the decisions that Peters and some of the other higher-ups were going to make, were horrendous. But in the end, it serves as a fascinating tale of "what could have been". Sure, there are so many questionable aspects to this film that taint the idea at first thought, but man this could have been something special. Special props to Jon Schnepp for making a kicka** documentary.+Schnepp and Kevin Smith kill it+Insightfully insane ideas+Not your ordinary DOC9.0/10

I am no Superman aficionado so if I have mistakenly got something wrong, I'm sorry and leave your pitchforks at the door!The first two Superman movies were awesome, the second two are entertaining in how bad they are, Superman Returns is even worse and Man Of Steel, while being full of massive destruction is still a pretty awesome film.I started hearing about this film when the picture started circulating around the Internet of Nicolas Cage in a Superman outfit. I didn't like the outfit and, as of now, didn't like the idea of Cage playing Clark Kent/Superman but back then I probably wouldn't have minded the casting.Kevin Smith talks about 3 rules that were given to him by Jon Peters; No flying, no suit and Superman must fight a giant spider. Peters says the first two are not true but I have to say, I'm inclined to believe Kevin Smith over him, mostly due to some of the things he says throughout the doco.Peters tells Kevin Smith 'You got nothing happening. You got Brainiac coming to the Fortress of Solitude, there's not fight. Have him fight Superman's guards' Um okay 1) Fortress of SOLITUDE – there's no one there! 2) Guards? He's Superman; he doesn't have guards. What superhero has guards!When Peters talks about firing Smith later, he states one of the reasons being the script wasn't funny. Since when is Superman a comedy! Peters goes on to talk about making the cape a character of it's own; could be taken off and thrown at someone and could even chop someone's head off.WHAT!!!!Storyboard artist, Michael Anthony Jackson, the day before getting the call from Tim Burton about doing Superman Lives, signed on to do the first Matrix film but then pulled out the next day – what a mistake that was!Wesley Strick was hired after Kevin Smith was fired 'I hadn't read any of The Death of Superman. I wasn't up to speed with any of that stuff'That stuff? HE is supposed to write a movie when he hasn't read the comics! Wow this movie would have been brilliant!Pretty much the only thing this movie had going for it, after Smith was fired, was the casting; Sandra Bullock as Lois Lane, Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and Christopher Walken as Brianiac.I did not like the design they had for Brainiac, it was basically a head on some spider legs. The rough designs for Doomsday were horrible, one of them had faces coming out of his body!This documentary was very informative to see the process of making a movie of this scale back then, I'm glad to see some aspects of making a Superman film have changed.After watching this and hearing what it could have been, I am beyond glad that it wasn't made. I think it could have been worse than even Superman Returns!While it was an interesting look into what could have been and what went wrong, it's not something I need to watch again.CHAPPY THINKS that although I love what Tim Burton did with Batman, I think Superman Lives would have been more catastrophic than the final destructions scenes in Man Of Steel!

Nicolas Cage as Superman...hmm interesting. The Documentary delves into one of Hollywood's most enthralling 'what could have been' stories. In 1996, Warner Brothers engaged Kevin Smith to write the screenplay ('Superman Lives'). Director Tim Burton assembled an elite group of artists to work on Superman Lives, including Nicolas Cage as Superman. Warner Brothers scrapped the project shortly before principal photography began."Superman Lives" a movie that never happened and the film was going to be directed by Tim Burton. Jon Peters as producer and Nicolas Cage himself starring as Superman. This was around the time where superhero movies or just normal movies were bombing at the box office and movies at that time wasn't getting well received by critics and yes we did get good movies around that time as well, but that was in fall time and most of the bad movies came out in the summer time so everybody just expected everything to suck at that time. So I think that's why this movie never happened just because of that and the movie studios were struggle at the time since every movie was bombing in front of them so when they got a new Superman movie starring Nic Cage of course they would say no to it since Batman and Robin and Steel didn't work.The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? was a pretty good Documentary. It showed me a lot of the behind the scenes and the ideas that Tim Burton came up with and so did the art designers. The ideas they had for the movie and they drawings they did for the monsters that Superman can fight were pretty good and quite creative designs. The Documentary kept my interested from start till finish and it actually gave me second thoughts about Cage as Superman and the whole project itself as I do believe it could have been somewhat good just by the unique draw out art designs. Watch it yourself and you know what I'm saying. I can't believe I'm saying this but Nicolas Cage could have been a good Superman. Watch the Documentary yourself as they put Nic Cage in the outfit and he looked good as Superman that's just me being honest here.What I never known about Jon Peters is that he used to be a hairdresser and now his a movie prouder, don't ask me how all that happened. I was pretty shocked about Jon Peters ideas for Superman Lives like he didn't want Superman to fly or even wear his Superman outfit, I mean what? and Jon Peters seems to have a strange thing with spiders because he wanted Superman to face-off with a giant spider and let's not forget that Jon was the producer of Wild Wild West where they were giant iron spider in that movie. Jon Peters at times didn't know what the hell he was on about and he doesn't really care about the character of Superman. Just doing it for money I guest.My only problem with the Documentary is that they only talk about the ideas about monsters and they only show you fan art of those designs, but I didn't really get a full gaps on what the movie could have been like and how the movie will start and finish, I never got that in this Documentary.Overall The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? is a good Documentary that's worth checking out.

A must watch for aspiring film-makers and anyone who loves movies enough to care about the collaborative work that goes on behind it. I'd like to think it's the same as having your family or spouse say, 'I want an abortion.' Can't even begin to imagine the pain.The artwork, the concepts, the ideas, with Tim Burton at the helm, it probably would have made a masterpiece that would be talked about for years. Like one of them said. "It wasn't made and we still are talking about it." Almost 20 years later!Personally I don't think it would have brought the studio the numbers at the time, considering Warner Bros'. bad run of luck and the very fact that the audience back then may not have been ready for it. The cinephiles of today though, with their healthy diet of superhero movies, would have thrown money for a story like this. (This documentary was funded largely by a Kickstarter campaign, so there you go)But when you see what they rather made with the previously allocated budget? (Man, you will be shocked.) You'd perhaps say, they should have gone with "Superman Lives" instead.A big shout of appreciation to Jon Schnepp for getting this made. An even bigger hug to the entire team for being brave enough to relive the memories.