Nicolas Cage Says Tim Burton's SUPERMAN LIVES May Work Better in Fans' Minds
Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage was this close to playing Superman for director Tim Burton back in the '90s, and that film's development and subsequent derailing is chronicled in Jon Schnepp's documentary The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? I haven't seen the doc for myself yet, but apparently Cage was busy during filming and couldn't appear in the movie. Yahoo sat down with him to talk about his new film The Runner, and got the actor to sound off on what might have been with Superman Lives:
The only thing I’ll say about that — because that is such a lighting rod hot topic and if I say anything at all it just seems to snowball — but I will say that I had great belief in that movie and in what Tim Burton’s vision was going to be for that movie. I would’ve loved to have seen it, but I feel that in many ways, it was sort of a win/win because of the power of the imagination. I think people can actually see the movie in their minds now and imagine it and in many ways that might resonate more deeply than the finished project.
Tim is the total artist, a pure artist with a real vision, and I’ve often said that he can create worlds and that’s exactly what he does. I saw some of the tests of different characters and costumes for Krypton and they were just so surreal and so magical and beautiful. He’s definitely one of my favorite filmmakers because of his originality, because of his vision.
So Cage seems to liken Superman Lives to Jodorowsky's Dune (another project with a terrific what-could-have-been documentary), and he may have a point: as much as fans think they want to see the movie, it might end up being better living in our imaginations.