Kevin Smith Wrote a Death of Superman Script for Ben Affleck

There are few popular culture tales extra fascinating than these about tasks that had been in growth however by no means occurred. George Miller’s Justice League. James Cameron’s Spider-Man. Tim Burton’s Superman. And that final one has a fair higher origin story than the Man of Steel himself. At one level, it was Kevin Smith’s Superman.

In a brand new interview for the Yahoo present the Never-Weres, the director of Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy instructed the story of how, after Mallrats, he discovered himself writing a Superman script primarily based on the well-known early Nineteen Nineties DC story “The Death of Superman” for 2 of his Mallrats co-stars.

“I was writing it for [Ben] Affleck,” Smith stated. “Ben was heating up. Like he was there. I think he’d been hired for Armageddon. … Affleck, he’s a fucking giant, like he’s built like a superhero, built like a giant action figure, particularly with the height. And then he puts on the muscles there too. So in my head and heart, it was always Ben and Michael Rooker, which was a weird Mallrats reunion.”

Smith discovered himself writing the script after he learn the earlier one Warner Bros. was creating referred to as Superman Reborn. “[I said] ‘Oh my god, it’s terrible. The whole script, [it’s like] the people who wrote it don’t understand Superman at all. It’s kind of winking and stuff. There’s a way, a faithful telling of this … audiences appreciate it being treated seriously,’” Smith stated.

So he wrote his script however then bumped into issues with producer Jon Peters, who managed the rights on the time. Peters had a really, very completely different model from the comedian guide fan take that Smith had, particularly when it got here to casting. Peters needed current Oscar-winner Sean Penn. “He goes, ‘Look in his eyes in [Dead Man Walking]. He’s [got] haunted eyes, the eyes of a killer,’” Smith says of Peters. “And I was like, ‘Dude, it’s Superman. You know, that’s not how most people think of Superman.’ But he wanted to reinvent it. He wanted something gritty, graphic, and grown-up. He essentially wanted like what Zack Snyder eventually did.”

To accomplish that, Warner Bros. employed the person who’d not too long ago performed that for Batman, Tim Burton. Burton solid Nicolas Cage and threw out Smith’s script fully, which is a complete different story (and documentary, referred to as The Death of Superman Lives; it’s glorious if you can find it). But Smith, and Peters in a method, each had good concepts for Superman. They simply occurred to be many years earlier than the world was prepared. Affleck even ended up taking part in Superman, sort of; he portrayed early display Superman George Reeves within the thriller 2006 noir Hollywoodland.

Read, and pay attention, to extra of Smith’s story over at Yahoo.

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