I'm only basing this off the first draft, but "Superman Flyby" appears to have been a somewhat shameless amalgam of the Donner films and three film franchises that were big at the time it was written: "Star Wars Episode 1", "The Matrix" and Bryan Singer's "X-Men." It straight up ripped-off many visual elements of "Phantom Menace" (war machines terrorizing an edenic planet) and "Matrix" (Superman fights the villains kung-fu style in mid-air) and also borrowed "X-Men"'s "superhero as closeted gay teen" analogy (IMO "Flyby" was actually more explicit than "X-Men" in regard to this theme.) It also recycled several elements from "Superman 1" including the rescue of Air Force One and Superman and Lois's first interview/date/flight.
It was a terrible script and allegedly the reason it was leaked to AICN was because a Warner exec who was
actually a Superman fan was horrified that they were going to make it. Additionally one must keep in mind the two
auteurs Warner had hired to make the film, Brett Ratner and McG. Take a look at where they place on the "Hack Director Venn Diagram" below:
