best superman movie never made

[riddler]

self explanatory film but one thing thats interesting is that brainiac was rumoured to be in all of them potentially.

[thecolorsblend]

Superman V (with the Cary Bates script) with Brainiac, the bottled city of Kandor, all that stuff sounded cool until I found it was going to have a "green" theme and then I gave up my interest in it.

[thecolorsblend]

The other best Superman movie never produced was mine. It was a Silver Age/science-fairy tale thing where we spend maybe 5 or 10 minutes on Krypton, maybe another 15 minutes with Superboy in Smallville (where we are introduced to the renegade/non-corporate Lex, a member of the Justice Society of America helps train Superboy a little and then we briefly meet the Legion of Superheroes) and then on to Metropolis where the mad scientist version of Lex comes gunning for Superman.

In the sequel, the Legion thing would get paid off when the Time Trapper attempts to wipe Superboy out of existence in order to prevent the Legion from ever coming into existence so Superman and the Legion must travel forward in time with the Legion and beat the snot out of the Time Trapper and save themselves from being erased... from existence.

[The Dark Knight]

From this list, I would've liked to have seen the Burton film. Weirdness and all.

[BatmAngelus]

The other best Superman movie never produced was mine. It was a Silver Age/science-fairy tale thing where we spend maybe 5 or 10 minutes on Krypton, maybe another 15 minutes with Superboy in Smallville (where we are introduced to the renegade/non-corporate Lex, a member of the Justice Society of America helps train Superboy a little and then we briefly meet the Legion of Superheroes) and then on to Metropolis where the mad scientist version of Lex comes gunning for Superman.

That sounds awesome, colors.  Just curious, who was the JSA member you had in mind?

[Edd Grayson]

Where's the option "Superman II, III and IV directed by Richard Donner" ?

[riddler]

Where's the option "Superman II, III and IV directed by Richard Donner" ?

I only had 5 options

We basically have the donner cut of superman II but has there ever been any details of what donner would have done with a 3rd film? I'm sure it would have been different with no Richard Priorr and Gene Hackman would have been back with Margot Kidder likely willing to offer more than 5 minutes of screen time.

[thecolorsblend]

That sounds awesome, colors.  Just curious, who was the JSA member you had in mind?

I was leaning toward Dr. Fate, Wildcat and Ted Knight/Starman. The idea would be to set up the JSA as Clark's heritage and the Legion as his legacy. Justice League of America v1 153 establishes that Superman's arrival on Earth set off a chain reaction which gradually transformed the world from more or less the "real world" into (lacking a better way to put it) more of a fairy tale kind of place, the cumulative effect began giving other people superpowers and other stuff. I'd run with that concept so that by the time Clark reaches adulthood, people with superpowers and outfits isn't an uncommon (or necessarily unwelcome) sight.

I thought it might be kind of cool to give Superboy, Superman in the first movie and Superman in the sequels different outfits to symbolize his growth. The Fleischer uniform for Superboy (made from his baby blankets), a kind of simple, homemade Lois & Clark outfit made from standard Earth fabrics for Superman in the first film and then a more polished and "designy" outfit made from Kryptonian completely indestructible materials in the sequels. The story logic would go that he's becoming more powerful and also more connected to his Kryptonian roots; the other reason would be to validate all of Superman's outfits from 1940'ish to 2010.

Not that it matters, these movies will never see the light of day.

[Silver Nemesis]

Not that it matters, these movies will never see the light of day.

More's the pity, that sounds like a great trilogy. I especially like the concepts of the evolving costume and the expansive universe incorporating the JSA and Legion of Superheroes. That would make excellent groundwork for a shared cinematic universe.

Concerning the topic question, I'm not sure any of these would have been very successful.

I started reading a Superman V script years ago. I'm not sure if it was the one listed amongst the vote options, but it featured Brainiac as the villain and supposedly Chris Reeve had read it and was interested in starring in it. The section I read from the beginning of the script was quite promising, though it may have gotten a bit weird later on. I think it was the script where Lois gives birth to a fully grown Superman or something strange like that.

I voted for the Superman Returns sequel based on a synopsis I read, which may or may not be genuine. According to the unverified plot that leaked on the web, the sequel would have featured another Kryptonian arriving on Earth and disagreeing with Superman over whether or not they should interfere in a war between two Earth nations. The other Kryptonian forces the nations to coexist peacefully and gives humans advanced Kryptonian technology to improve their quality of living. The people of Earth then embrace the newcomer and turn against Superman, resenting the Man of Steel for not interfering in their affairs the way the new alien has. Superman then boards the alien's spaceship and discovers it is filled with clone bodies. The alien is actually Brainiac and is using these bodies as avatars. Superman destroys all the clones until only one other body remains on Earth that is compatible with Brainiac's consciousness: the body of Superman's son, Jason. Brainiac then possesses the boy's body and Superman is forced to destroy his own child in order to save the Earth. The plot sounds like a mixture of the first Brainiac story from Action Comics #242 (July 1958), 'What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?' (Action Comics #775, March 2001) and the 'Curse of the Replacement Superman' chapter from All-Star Superman.

Even if this is the genuine plot they were going with, it's not perfect. I particularly don't like the bit about Superman having to kill Jason. But I expect Singer would have learned from his mistakes and that this would have been a significant improvement over the first film. If nothing else, it would have resolved the storyline about Superman's son and would have featured lots of action. And if it did turn out to be rubbish, then fine, they could still have gone ahead with the Man of Steel reboot. But I would have liked to have seen this film released back in 2009/2010.

[Paul (ral)]

Ilya Salkind also had a treatment written before Superman 3 that involved Brainiac, Kandor and Supergirl. Obviously it never got made - Gus Gorman's supercomputer was probably influenced by it.