A Double Dose Of The Man of Steel!

Straight from the archives of my old blog, here are two articles chronicling the Last Son of Krypton!  Enjoy!

What Superman III Could Have Been

(originally posted on June 22, 2010)

Most of us remember Richard Pryor Meets Super, er, I mean, Superman III as being a lackluster disappointment following the first two installments of Alexander and Illya Salkind's Superman series.

There was, however, a very different proposal for that movie by Alexander Salkind's partner and son, Illya.

What follows is a plot outline of what Illya proposed for Superman III. I don't think it's better than what we got, though it certainly isn't any closer to the comic material so many fans are familiar with, but it is more exciting at least and it would have introduced ...

Brainiac...



Mr. Mxyzptlk (pronounced Mix-yez-pit-ul-ick) ...



and Supergirl ...



To audiences that might have been previously unfamiliar with them.

The plot really stinks and has some outrageous ideas that border on the ludicrous. You can definitely feel the absence of Richard Donner's expert touch to the proceedings. All the same, here it is, Alexander Salkind's story treatment for the Superman III that never was!

Looking back, I still don't think that film would have been as bad as the one we got, not that Superman III is irredeemable ... at least not fully. Oh well, at least one of those characters finally did make it to the big screen ...

... but alas, that is a post for another day.


And also, we are pleased to present ...

Just In Time For Halloween, Something Really Scary

(originally posted on October 31, 2010)

Behold my dear readers ...

A horrifying, twisted, transparant claw!!! What mad movie monster could have been in mind when the prop department dreamed this up?  Believe it or not, it was Superman.

Yes, that Superman. Y'know, the guy who fights for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

What you see in the top photo is a prop still that was designed for a feature film in the late 90s that THANKFULLY never came to fruition.

Superman Lives was based on a script by Kevin Smith ...

No, not the guy who used to play Ares on Xena: Warrior Princess. THIS KEVIN SMITH ...

You know, the guy who built his reputation as a director who loved fanboys until he got his own fanboys and decided it was okay to start dumping on people who like Transformers and Lord of the Rings.
Yeah, well anyway. He wrote a Superman script, which actually had a pretty decent plot from all I've ever heard. It involved Brainiac, Lex Luthor, The Eradicator, and Doomsday which given that out of Superman's six feature films, he's so far only fought two villains from the comics, that would have been refreshing.
Tim Burton was signed to direct, and Nicholas Cage (who actually took his stage name from comic book hero Luke Cage) was cast as the Man of Steel.

Yeesh, talk about worse than Kryptonite.

Now, no disrespect to Mr. Cage. I mean, he loved the character enough to name his first born Kal-El (Superman's Kryptonian name) and the guy's been concentrated awesome in everything I've ever seen him in, but this is, well ... ew.

Anyway, the film was delayed a few times and finally canceled. I'm rather glad actually because in Burton's version, this was the design for the Superman Costume.

Yeah, good ole Tim.

These designs have been kept out of the public's eye since ... well, since always! BUT, visual effects designer Steve Johnson recently put a gallery of these images online.  Follow the link and see what could have been!

!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE !!!