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The Secret Story Of SUPERMAN: FLYBY 2017-02-24 02:24:34 Post No. 79731212
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The Secret Story Of SUPERMAN: FLYBY 2017-02-24 02:24:34 Post No. 79731212
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Would it have preferrable to "Superman Returns" and "Man of Steel", /tv/?
>In 2002, the infamous SUPERMAN LIVES project was languishing in development hell long after the departures of Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage, kept on life support by producer Jon Peters, who had become attached to the proposed portrayal of Superman as a conflicted social outcast. This scenario changed when Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN became a global phenomenon and galvanized Warner Bros Pictures to invest more aggresively in their superhero properties.
>J.J. Abrams, at the time only known as the writer of the the box office hit ARMAGGEDON and as the creator of the the succesful television series FELICITY, was approached by WB to pitch a new version of the project, shedding all the baggage that came beforehand. Abrams's envisioned a trilogy of movies, drawing inspiration from Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS as well as the MATRIX series, a very appealing prospect to WB despite Peters' objections.
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>Abrams's script, titled SUPERMAN: FLYBY, featured Clark Kent as the long-lost prince of the faraway planet Krypton, ravaged by civil war between Clark's benevolent father, Jor-El, and his malevolent brother, General Kata-Zor. Clark is prophetized to one day free Krypton from Kata-Zor's tyranny, and is sent to live with Jonathan and Martha Kent on Earth until he is ready to embrace his destiny.
>Clark develops superpowers under Earth's yellow Sun and decides to use them to protect the world as Superman, developing a relationship with his old friend and co-worker Lois Lane and coming into conflict with Lex Luthor, a CIA agent investigating alien activity on Earth. Kata-Zor eventually learns of Clark's whereabouts and sends his son Ty-Zor to kill him.
>Aided by Luthor, Ty-Zor lures Superman into a trap and fatally exposes him to Kryptonite, but an encounter with the spirit of Jor-El gives Clark the necessary strength to return to life. He then rallies the world's governments to fight Ty-Zor and his army, who have decided to subjugate Earth, and in the process Luthor is exposed as a Kryptonian spy. Superman emerges victorious and returns to Krypton to face Kata-Zor and avenge Jor-El's death.
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>Abrams' script was well-received by WB, and McG, fresh off of the box office hit CHARLIE'S ANGELS, was attached to direct the movie, but soon had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with the sequel, CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE. Abrams' script was also deemed too expensive, requiring a budget of over $200 million. While he wrote a second draft, WB approached Wolfgang Petersen, known for another recent box office hit, THE PERFECT STORM, to replace McG.
>Petersen instead became interested in BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN, a crossover pitched to WB by Andrew Kevin Walker, the scribe of SE7EN, and written by Akiva Goldsman, who had previously worked on BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN & ROBIN. In the script, Bruce Wayne becomes Batman once again years after abandoning the mantle when his wife Elizabeth Miller is murdered by the Joker. Realizing Batman no longer cares to preserve innocent lives caught in the crossfire, Superman is forced to intervene, but Batman is willing to put down his old friend if he stands on the way of his revenge, unaware the conflict was engineered by Lex Luthor to manipulate the two heroes into killing each other.
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>Petersen approached Jude Law and Colin Farrell to play the lead roles of Superman and Batman, respectively, but Law declined, while Farrell entered negotiations. Josh Hartnett and Christian Bale were also approached before the project was scrapped due to conflicts between producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Alan Horn.
>Bonaventura was a vocal supporter of the BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN project, while Horn favored reinventing the characters in separated franchises before a crossover, through SUPERMAN: FLYBY and the long-gestating BATMAN: YEAR ONE project written and directed by Darren Aronofsky. Bonaventura went directly to the WB brass to voice his disagreements with Horn's management, and resigned shortly afterwards. BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN died with his departure, and Abrams submitted a new draft of SUPERMAN: FLYBY.
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>The second draft scaled down the ambitious action scenes and interludes in war-torn Krypton, and completely reworked the character of Lex Luthor from a extraterrestrial masquerading as a CIA agent into an average travellng salesman who is afforded superhuman intelligence by contact with Kryptonian technology, which he then reverse-engineers to create his multibillionaire conglomerate LexCorp. When Superman reveals himself to the world, Luthor offers him a place by his side, and upon his declinal, Luthor contacts Ty-Zor, who comes to Earth to kill Superman.
>Superman's death, Ty-Zor's army and the massive battles between the assembled military forces of the United Nations and the invading Kryptonian army were excised, reducing it to a conflict between Superman and Ty-Zor in the streets of Metropolis, which once again culminates with Superman returning to Krypton to fulfill his destiny.
>Other elements left behind are Jor-El's suicide and subsequent encounter with Superman in Heaven; the attempted rape of Martha Kent that is foiled by a young Clark; Jonathan Kent's death from a heart attack shortly after Superman's first appearance, causing Clark to quit; and the numerous references to Jimmy Olsen's homosexuality.
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>Krypton's survival wasn't SUPERMAN: FLYBY's only notable diversion from the source material: Jor-El is revealed to have visited Earth in the past and chosen the Kents as Superman's human caretakers; Clark meets Lois Lane in college and that's what inspires him to pursue journalism; Superman's suit is an advanced Kryptonian armored fabric that is stored in a small canister and the symbol of Krypton's prophetized savior; and elements such as the Fortress of Solitude are done away to make Superman more human.
>True to its sources of inspiration, Superman and Ty-Zor are both proficient in an elaborate Kryptonian martial art, which had been popularized by THE MATRIX; Krypton was a massive planet with its own culture, language and wildlife, heavily inspired by THE LORD OF THE RINGS; and the aspirations to craft an epic story are presented in characters such as Prideus, a Kryptonian elder imprisoned by Kata-Zor for his knowledge of Krypton's prophecies and who has a minor appearance in SUPERMAN: FLYBY to introduce him to the audience ahead of a larger role as Superman's mentor in the prospective sequels.
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>>79731212
>>JJ abrams
no, I don't even have to read the rest
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>Abrams' second draft finally received the green light, and Brett Ratner, known for successful RUSH HOUR movies and the well-received RED DRAGON, was selected as the new director, with a prospective release date in the summer of 2004. WB demanded that Superman be played by a famous actor, and approached Josh Hartnett, Jude Law, Paul Walker, Brendan Fraser, Ashton Kutcher, David Boreanaz and James Marsden for the role, but they all declined due to scheduling conflicts, the demanding three-picture contract proposed by WB and the stigma of playing Superman.
>The studio ultimately conceded to casting a relatively unknown actor, and after numerous screen tests, Ratner found his Man of Steel in Matt Bomer, although WB was not entirely won over. Joel Edgerton, one of the actors offered an audition, instead favored the role of Ty-Zor and impressed Ratner with his performance, while Keri Russell was in early talks to play Lois Lane.
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Aronofky's Batman would have been capekino.
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>Pre-production was very far along, with RED DRAGON alums Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Fiennes set to play Jor-El and Lex Luthor, respectively, when Ratner unexpectedly dropped out to be project due to filming delays and constant clashes with producer Jon Peters, who remained attached as a producer and vocal as ever about his grievances with the project.
>Abrams, eager to break into directing, volunteered to take over from Ratner, but WB was unwillng to entrust their $150 million tentpole blockbuster to an unexperienced first-time director and began searching for a suitable replacement.
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>By that time, McG had already completed CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE, which was a moderate box office success, and was allowed to step back into the director's chair. At WB's behest, he conducted a new round of screen tests with up-and-coming actors including Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, Victor Webster, Jason Behr, Jared Padelicki and Michael Cassidy, and was particularly favorable towards Cavill.
>WB planned to counter to lack of star power of their new Superman by filling up the supporting cast with recognizable faces, lobbying for Beyoncé Knowles to play Lois Lane and Johnny Depp to portray Lex Luthor, although both eventually declined. McG instead tapped Robert Downey Jr. to play Luthor, with Shia LaBeouf and Christopher Walken in early talks for Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, respectively, and Scarlett Johansson and Selma Blair as the frontrunners for Lois Lane.
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>Hopkins remained attached as Jor-El, and WB sought to capitalize on his fame in villainous roles by recruiting notable script doctor Josh Schwartz to revise Abrams' current draft, eliminating the character of Kata-Zor altogether and making Jor-El the evil dictator of Krypton. Ty-Zor was then changed from Superman's cousin to his half-brother, and Superman's mother Lara Lor-Van was given a larger role as the leader of the Resistance against her estranged husband.
>Production was set to begin in late 2003, still eyeing a summer 2004 release date. McG advocated for filming in New York City, while WB found Australia to be less expensive. McG, who was notably afraid of flying, attempt to reach a compromise in filming in Canada, but WB was resolute, and McG ultimately dropped. Abrams volunteered his services once again to no avail, and WB instead pursued M. Night Shyamalan and Michael Bay for the job, but they likewise declined.
>Shyamalan was interest in the project, but wanted to write his own draft of the script, which didn't fit WB's timetable. Bay, on the other hand, was uninterested in superhero movies, but still took advantage of WB's vested interest in him to leverage a bigger budget for his next movie, THE ISLAND.
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>Filming had to be delayed once again to accomodate for the search for a new director, and while it was taking place, X-MEN director Bryan Singer met with Alan Horn to discuss a separate project. Upon learning of the recent production problems of SUPERMAN: FLYBY, Singer voiced his own ideas to reinvent the character, making it a sequel to the Christopher Reeve movies rather than a full-on reboot and explore the role of an old-fashioned superhero such as Superman in a darker and grittier 21st century.
>Horn was intrigued and invited Singer to present his pitch to the WB executives, where it was received favorably. Singer's experience with the genre and his reverence for the classic movies earned him a green light, and SUPERMAN RETURN was born, while SUPERMAN: FLYBY went the way of its predecessor and was officially scrapped in 2004, the very year it was meant to come out.
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>Brandon Routh, who auditioned for SUPERMAN: FLYBY, won the lead role in Singer's movie, partially due to his resemblance to Christopher Reeve.
>Henry Cavill, who also tried out and came close under McG's management, eventually played the character in Zack Snyder's MAN OF STEEL, while Bomer went on to voice the character in the animated movie SUPERMAN UNBOUND.
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>>79732069
Based Fucking Bay.
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mfw I have heard all this before and even remember some of it as it happened, but always have schadefreude to hear how stupidly fucked Warners is
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So much failure. If I've learned anything it's just make it. Stop fucking around and make it, before everyone loses interest.
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>>79732869
The story OP tells is only I think the last 1/3 or so of the entire Jon Peters/Superman saga, it's a mega fest of incompetence and hollywood douchbaggery.
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Superman: Flyby is a fucking god awful name. Also the story sounds stupid as hell but it was written by JJA so of course it is
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>>79733030
>Also the story sounds stupid as hell
this
Does anyone actually think any of those ideas sounded good?
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MoS is one of the only good superhero movies so no, I wouldn't have wanted jewjew to do it.
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>>79733400
besides some pacing problems I basically agree though i wouldnt be against Brad Bird directing a superman flick
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>>79733400
>>79733510
You're both stupid.
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>>79733572
Please go back to /co/ you manchild
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>>79733587
Triggered.
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>>79733610
not really
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all of that sounds like a fucking train wreck. making jor el a bad guy? lex luthor an alien? why can't good people make movies.
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>>79733995
Comic book people are talentless manchildren and should not be allowed anywhere near superior mediums.
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>>79734089
this, if you want to read a shitty comic book, read a shitty comic book.
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>>79733790
takes time, which WB is allergic to.
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What I've learned from this is that WB loved pushing Abrams around.
WB: "We're looking for a director."
J.J: I'll do it! no questions asked!
WB: We said we're looking for a director. A real director.
years later
WB: We're looking for a director
J.J: Please let me do it!
WB: Can you get us in touch with Michael Bay? Of course you can't.
Thread posts: 31
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Thread images: 14