Perhaps we might see Nicolas Cage in blue spandex after all. Back in the 1990s, the actor had spearheaded an effort to make a new live-action Superman film in which he would star as the Man of Steel. At one point, Tim Burton was brought onto the project to serve as director, following his acclaimed work on the original Batman movie and its sequel, Batman Returns. Cage had gone as far as doing screen tests in the role before the film was canceled before shooting could actually start.
The demise of Superman Lives, as it was to be called, seemed to spell the end of Cage’s chances of ever playing the character. Other actors like Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill have since come in to star in their own Superman films, making Cage’s Kal-El dreams a distant memory. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Cage looks back at the film, first clearing up the rumors that it was Burton that approached him to star in the movie. The actor makes it clear that the movie was his vision, and that he had actually sought Burton as the film’s director.
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Nowadays, the introduction of DC’s multiverse in The Flash makes it possible for Superman variants to appear in the DCEU, despite Henry Cavill’s presence as Clark Kent in that world. Many fans had liked to believe that Cage’s Superman would have existed in the same world as Burton’s Batman films, given that it had the same director. Now that Michael Keaton has reprised his role as Batman in the DCEU alongside Ben Affleck’s variant, the door is open for the Burtonverse’s Kal-El to join the party as well. Here’s what Cage had to say when asked if there was a chance we could finally see that happen.
“I have to be careful what I say about this stuff. What is it about comic books that [everything] just goes everywhere exponentially within split seconds? What I want to go on record with is: Tim Burton did not cast me. I cast Tim Burton. They wanted [Die Hard 2/Cliffhanger director] Renny Harlin, and he’s a nice guy and perfectly capable. But for me, the vision I had for Kal-El was more of a Tim Burton-style presentation universe.”
“I was a big fan of Mars Attacks! The studio was worried about Mars Attacks! But they hired Tim per my request, and then they shut the whole thing down. That’s always been both a positive and a negative to me. It’s a positive in that it left the character, and what Tim and I might have gotten up to, in the realm of imagination — which is always more powerful than that is concrete. And a negative in that I think it would have been special. Is there a chance? Who knows. I don’t know. [Laughs.] To answer your question, I don’t know.”
Nicolas Cage Isn’t Saying No to Playing Superman
Nicolas Cage can’t give a definitive answer about possibly playing Superman. However, he admits that it would be “interesting,” showing that the idea at least has him intrigued. Maybe he could also bring along the infamous “giant spiders” that the film was supposed to have before it was scrapped.
Cage did manage to eventually play Superman in a way, as he voices an animated version of the DC superhero in the 2018 film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
“It certainly would be interesting. It certainly would be interesting. I just would have loved to have seen those giant spiders that they were talking about, and I did see some of Tim’s drawings. He’s such a gifted artist in terms of painting. They were remarkably beautiful.”
