From worstpreviews, Back in 1974, three producers purchased the film rights to Superman that eventually resulted in the classic 1978 film. After a great sequel, there were two more installments that many believe led to the end of that series.
But the producers were planning a fifth film, called "Superman Reborn" with comic book writer Cary Bates on board to bring the franchise back to its past glory. Unfortunately, Warner Bros managed to get the rights back and quickly killed "Reborn."
Newsarama now caught up with Bates to get a few details about the project, which would have had Brainiac as the main villain. He said:
"The intent was to leapfrog over Superman III and especially IV, and return the series to the high mark achieved in 1 and 2. It was our desire to do a fully developed, balls-out science fiction story pitting Superman and Brainiac against each other mano a mano."
"Brainiac comes to Earth for the first time and shrinks Metropolis, adding it to his interplanetary collection of miniaturized cities. But because he becomes aware of the unique super-powered being in his latest acquisition, Brainiac miniaturizes himself and ventures into the bottled Metropolis in person. This leads to a knock-down drag-out battle that ends in what appears to be Superman’s death."
"A split-second before his atoms would've been permanently disintegrated, they are sucked into a bottle-city a few rows over... Kandor. There he is 'reborn' as a mortal man, where he gets to reconnect with his Kryptonian roots as he begins the arduous process of rehabilitating himself and eventually escaping from Kandor to resume his battle with Brainiac."
6 comments:
"...there were two more installments that many believe led to the end of that series."
Um, I don't think it's a matter of belief that the last two of a series "led to the end." I think that's math.
A sci-fi story might've been fun, but when I imagine how Braniac would've looked I can't help think of Schwarzeneggar's Mr. Freeze costume.
(I like Braniac as a character, but I like him best as presented by the animated Superman series in the 90's. In that, he was Krypton's main computer, and the disbelief in Jor-El about the imminent destruction was a ruse by Braniac because he preferred to upload his systems to a satellite rather than coordinate Krypton's evacuation. So his presence in Superman's life is somewhat bittersweet, as Brainiac contains the total database of Kryptonian science and culture.)
This just reminds me how much I hate the Superman character. They always have resort the "he lost his powers" card because what else can you do to a character that can do anything?
Still, I would rather this movie exist.
Another reason to like the animated series -- they took a page from the John Byrne 80's reboot of Superman and didn't make him so crazy powerful. So when he gets into fights with giant robots and stuff, you get to see him kicked around some.
I was a big fan of the John Byrne reboot. They ended up making Clark sort of a normal guy, without all the nebbishness. That's always been one of the biggest problems I've had with the character. How could anyone, least of all Lois (who's in close personal contact with both personas), NOT notice that the nervous office nerd is 6'4", 225 lbs?
I heard this was explained at some point by the concept of "super-hypnosis" which is so absolutely retarded I can't even comment further.
Still, I would've taken the Brainiac movie instead of Richard Pryor and nuclear disarmament.
Pants always had a great critique of Superman as a character:
MAN #1: You'll never believe it! Superman just did this totally awesome thing!!!
MAN #2: Of course he did. He's fucking Superman!
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