Media Essays: Superman Flyby, The Movie That Never Was

Written by The Wandering Fox

Hello everybody, it’s I, the Wandering Fox and I’m back with another Superman essay. As we await Superman’s comeback in cinema this year I thought this would make an interesting discussion as almost 24 years ago we had almost got a Superman movie. That is Superman Flyby. The film was almost made but underwent a lot of difficulties and ended up becoming Superman Returns instead. Though how was this film gonna be any different from other Superman stories? Well let’s find out, shall we?

Creation

Superman was largely absent in the 90s when it came to movies, ironic as the 90s was a big decade for him with The Death of Superman, the Lois and Clark TV series and the animated series dominating the 90s with Smallville beginning in the latter half. They tried to make a movie with Nicolas Cage as Superman with Tim Burton to direct with the movie called Superman Lives, with them getting as far as costume testing Nicolas for the role but the film fell apart. So it wasn’t until the beginning of the 21st century that the film studios tried again to make a Superman movie. With them wanting a different movie, how did it begin?

Who Was Behind It?

It was J.J Abrams who had been the big driving force behind this project. Abrams at the time was an upcoming star in the TV industry and was fairy new to the film scenery. JJ would go on to direct Star Trek and Into Darkness and The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, though these days JJ is more frowned upon by audiences thanks to his tendency of lens flares and mystery boxes as well as him being part of why the Sequel Trilogy was a disaster. The man though here was fairly new and while you try to be easy on these guys earlier in their careers, JJ’s film was going to be drastically different from any other Superman story we had.

The Script and Story

JJ turned a script in July 2002 with the film serving as a whole different story for Superman’s origins. The film would have revealed Krypton was still around but was in the middle of a big battle being fought between Jor-El and his brotha Kata-Zor. It’d have been revealed that Kal-El would have been destined to fulfil a prophecy and hence before Jor-El was sent to prison he sent Kal to Earth to fulfil this prophecy. Krypton would have been populated by battle machines, Kryptonians with shock staff and a much more darker planet than the icy like world from the past. Adopted by Jonathan and Martha and named Clark, he would go on to work at the Daily Planet and would be in a relationship with Lois, who here was obsessed with exposing Lex Luthor, who had been more of a former agent trying to expose UFO phenomenon. Clark would have revealed himself to the world as Superman and this would have attracted up to four Kryptonians with Ty-Zor, Kata-Zor’s son, to Earth and would have killed Superman. In Kryptonian heaven Clark would have reunited with Jor-El, who committed suicide in prison. Clark would have returned from the dead, battled the Kryptonians and then leave for Krypton to confront Kata-Zor.

The script itself can be seen here for all to read.

SUPERMAN By J.J. Abrams Octorber 24, 2003thescriptsavant.comhttps://thescriptsavant.com › movies › Flyby

While there was praise given to the portrayal of the characters I will have to say myself this only reads like a fan fiction with making Superman this character who had to fulfil a prophecy and defeat his evil uncle reads much too alike of a space Arthurian tale with Superman, keeping Krypton alive was much too different to do and this movie did what the DCEU did that you shouldn’t do: don’t kill Superman early. This does lead to to obsession these guys have that the only thing they do with him is to either kill him or turn him evil for Batman to defeat. And this was all JJ Abrams came up with, I mean really? Why can’t you just tell a traditional Superman story in which he works as a Daily Planet reporter, gladly helps the people of Metropolis and stops an evil doer that is working for Lex?

Concept art for the film

Still, the film did end up getting to go forward with a director found in Brett Ratner, with castings going out.

Who Could Have Been?

This film is incredibly ironic with who they were going to cast as Superman. With actual test shots, you can see who could have got the role.

Brandon Routh, who ended up playing Superman in Superman Returns and then reprised the role years later.

Josh Hartnett

And, believe it or not

Henry Cavill, who could have played him a decade earlier. There was others who had expressed interest in the role which included Branden Fraser.

Supposed test screening of Brendan as Superman. Brendan would go on to voice Robot Man.

There was also Jude Law, Matt Bomer, David Borenaze, Ashton Ketcher, the late Paul Walker, and even James Mardsen. Quite funnily enough with James he would go on to play Lois’s husband in Superman Returns, and would appear in Enchanted with Amy Adam’s with Superman Returns promoted in the background. In the end Matt Bomer was going to be the lead of the movie. The late Christopher Reeve was serving as a consultant on the movie and believed an unknown actor would have worked for the part with him saying "the character is more important than the actor who plays him, because it is an enduring mythology. It definitely should be an unknown."

Hartnett was offered a million dollars for the role, Brett Ratner ended up with meeting him, Law Walker and Fraser. Ratner then said that a famous actor would not want to be part of a franchise of films with contractual obligations to reprise the role sequels. "No star wants to sign that, but as much as I've told Jude and Josh my vision for the movie, I've warned them of the consequences of being Superman. They'll live this character for 10 years because I'm telling one story over three movies and plan to direct all three if the first is as successful as everyone suspects."

The late Paul Walker turned it down and said “I could have made a gazillion dollars on that franchise. I could probably have bought my own fleet of jets or my own island. You know what? I don't need it."

Fraser turned down the role as he feared he’d be typecast. Still, with Bomer to play Superman, who else was gonna be who?

Lois had a few actresses in mind including Scarlet Johansen and Keri Russell.

Jimmy Olsen could have been played by Shia LaBeouf.

Christopher Walken could have been Perry White.

And Johnny Depp or Robert Downey Jr would have been Lex.

In the end Downey Jr got the part of Lex though to me I think Johnny would have made a intimidating Lex.

With all this then, why didn’t it get made?

The End of Flyby

What ended it was a mixture of frustration, casting, money and location sets. The film was exceeding 200 million dollars by this point but Warner wanted it to be made. Brett Ratner then quitted as the director as he was fed up with the issues of casting and had been in aggressive talks with producer Jon Peters.

A new director came on board in McG, who had been hoping to film the movie in New York City and Canada but Warner didn’t want this as they’d have rather have the film made in Australia, which annoyed McG, though filming in Canada would have costed a lot more. In the end McG left and though Abrams offered to direct the movie, Bryan Singer was brought in and we ended up getting Superman Returns.

It does make you think how DC could’ve been if they had indeed made this film. Could it have been a success or would the change in Superman’s history would have been much too much for moviegoers? While it could have been amazing if they did cast any of these guys in the role would it have affected their careers? What are your own thoughts on Superman Flyby? Do tell me down below.

I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll cat you all later :)