Week in Review rounds up the best of the rest of film and TV news hitting the web this week. Check out the rest of the SOS Blog for more news updates.
Unless your name is Edgar Wright, it’s hard to imagine a superhero movie of any caliber and pedigree not somehow getting made in today’s day and age.
And yet in 1997, that’s exactly what happened. Tim Burton, many years after the success of his original Batman, was attached to direct Superman Lives, originally starring none other than Nicolas Cage as everyone’s favorite Kryptonian and adapted from a screenplay by Kevin Smith.
Just how in God’s green Earth did this brilliant, strange mash-up of talents in a movie never come to light is the question behind a documentary currently in production, The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?
The film is being directed by Jon Schnepp, the man behind Metalocalypse and The Venture Bros., and today as part of Comic-Con, a trailer for the unfinished documentary has hit the web (watch it below). It features a mulleted Cage doing screentests and modeling outfits as well as interviews with Smith, Burton, costume designer Colleen Atwood and more.
But the trailer has been released in order to bolster support for the completion of the film. Through crowdsource site Fanbacked, Schnepp is trying to raise an additional $85,000 to complete the film, offering perks including DVDs, posters, T-shirts and even a Skype chat or personalized voicemail message from Schnepp himself.
Materials from Superman Lives previously surfaced back in 2013 when Schnepp was beginning production and started a Kickstarter to get the film made, including more photos of Cage in costume, background on the film and even an early treatment of the screenplay.
Fans of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have all been eagerly awaiting a new project by screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman, who has had a dry spell since 2008’s Synecdoche, New York. Those fans may now have to wait a little longer as FX has passed on his TV show pilot How and Why. The show starred Michael Cera, Catherine Keener, John Hawkes and Sally Hawkins and according to IMDB was about a man trying to produce a TV show after his children’s science show gets cancelled. Except it’s really a meta-commentary with blends of comedy and drama about a man who can explain “why a nuclear reactor work but is clueless about life.” It’s possible that the show gets shopped around to HBO or punched up. (via Deadline)
Comic-Con has been a big week for release date announcements of future tentpole franchises. The first titans of the industry, Marvel, have slated five more unannounced films as far out as 2019, all of them part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to charting the calendar of existing Marvel films The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, a new Captain America and Doctor Strange, The Dissolve speculated on what some of those might be, including a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel (don’t you love when movies that haven’t even come out yet get sequels planned?) and a Canadian X-Men.
In more superhero news, Sony pushed back The Amazing Spider-Man 3 to 2018 and moved up the Spider-Man villain movie Sinister Six to November 2016, which is being written and directed by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods). In that same announcement, Sony also slotted the video-game adaptation Uncharted for June 10, 2016, which as you’ll recall still doesn’t have a star, director or finished script. The third Spider-Man film was originally intended to take Uncharted’s slot, with a fourth Spider-Man intended for 2018. (via THR)
And last and maybe least, Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Vague Subtitle TBA, will be released July 7, 2017, originally pushed back from a summer 2015 slot. Courtesy of Dave Itzkoff, here is a first look at the new film.
Also making news:
- The Late Show will remain in New York and the Ed Sullivan Theater after Letterman leaves and Colbert takes over
- The cast of Firefly is reuniting to provide voices for the MMO Firefly Online
- David Lynch isn’t planning on making another movie