Director: Jon Schnepp
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, Jon Peters
Have I Seen it Before: I’ve heard Smith tell his small part of the story, and I patiently sat through the more esoteric part of the third act of The Flash (2023). What more is there?
Did I Like It: My largest complaint is that absolute beast of a title. Why “What Happened”? If we take the logic that added that subtitle, it should be on every documentary. Ken Burns’ The Civil War: What Happened? Capturing the Friedmans: What Happened? Hearts of Darkness: What Happened?
Utter madness.
To the film’s credit, there’s at least something more to it, and Schnepp finds that something more. Smith is here to tell his side of the story again, but we also get Jon Peters largely living up to that legend, while still managing to deny he ever insisted that Superman not fly in the film as he developed it.
I’m surprised they could get Burton on the record about the whole thing, but his insights are more fascinating than anything else. I’m surprised that the fate of the film still sort of bothers him, and that he was ever going to get talked into doing a superhero film for Warner Bros. again after the apathy they berated him with in the wake of Batman Returns (1992).
But the thing that I’m most surprised to see is that there was at least a possibility, had Superman Lives been actually made, it might have actually worked. Simply put, despite teaser posters sent and test footage shot, this film was a very long way from coming to pass. Were they actually filming, Burton would have found some way to bring his vision to a project that never felt on spec like it was going to be a fit.
The studio would have hated it, and the McDonald’s high command would have a riot, but that’s when Burton can really start to cook.
Or he just would have made this instead of his Planet of the Apes (2001). That’s the thing about films that are never made. They can either be the greatest thing you will never see, or it can be so insanely bad that the human brain simply can’t process its dimensions.