Nicolas Cage Discusses Tim Burton's SUPERMAN Movie and Marvel, Saying "I Don’t Need to Be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage!"
Nicolas Cage is one of the most entertaining actors working in Hollywood today, and he really is a national treasure. He’s had such a wild career, and it’s still going! He recently accepted the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award at Miami Film Festival, and in his acceptance speech, he reflected on several of his past projects, including films that never got made like Tim Burton’s Superman Lives. He also talked about Marvel, saying:
“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me. I understand what the frustration is. I get it. But I think there’s plenty of room for everybody. I’m seeing movies like ‘Tár.’ I’m seeing all kinds of artistic and independently driven movies. I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.”
When asked if he wanted to join the MCU, he had the perfect Nic Cage response: “I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.”
As for Superman Lives, that is one of those legendary unmade Hollywood projects that has sparked the imagination of fans. It’s a project that we can’t help but be curious about, it’s one that we would have loved to see get made, but at the same time, the thought of what it could have been is all we need.
When talking about the film, Cage shared how the project came to him and how he is the one that hired Tim Burton to direct it. He said:
“They wanted Renny Harlin to do the movie. I sat down with Renny. I was doing another picture, he came to the trailer and we talked. I liked Renny… but I thought if I’m going to do this, it’s such a bullseye to hit. I said, this has to be Tim Burton. I called Tim and said, ‘Would you do this?’ Tim didn’t cast me, I cast Tim, and Tim said yes. I loved what he did with Michael [Keaton] and Batman, and I was a big fan.”
He went on to talk about why the movie never happened, and while he doesn’t know for sure, he thinks it might be because of Burton’s Mars Attacks bombing at the box office:
“I love Mars Attacks. I thought Mars Attacks was just a fantastic, groundbreaking movie. He’s a groundbreaker! But they were scared at the studio because of Mars Attacks. Warner Brothers had lost a lot of money on the movie. These movies that are really weird, that challenge and break ground, they piss a lot of people off. I think they got cold feet. They’d spent a lot of money already building the sets and the costume and what have you. But you never know. I don’t mean to be cryptic Cage, but you never know!”
He went on to talk about the version of Superman that they were developing for the film saying: “It was more of a 1980s Superman with like, the samurai black long hair. I thought it was gonna be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there.”
I remember when the first photo of Cage dressed up as Superman surfaced. The fan community exploded with all kinds of emotions. That was followed by more photos and even test footage. There was even a documentary made about the unmade film called The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?!
When previously talking about the film Cage explained why Superman Lives is more powerful than any of the other Superman films: "I would offer that the movie that Tim and I would have made, in your imagination, is more powerful than any of the Superman movies. I didn’t even have to make the movie and we all know what that movie would have been in your imagination. That is the Superman. That is the movie. Even though you never saw it—it is the Superman."