World Burton's Concept Art

[xwolverine2]

even forgetting its superman.... the suit just looks absolutely horrid.
what was he thinking?... has tim burton come out and said anything yet?

R.I.P tim burton

 

[DCnightwing23]

Well keep in mind the suits were seeing are probably test suits, prototypes at best with no digital effect, etc. I dont see what all the hate is about, at the core the movie would've had a lot of comic book elements just in Burton unique vision. From the concept art, to the leaked designs the film would've been promising. Its not your traditional Superman, but i think thats why this movie was even gonna be made is because it was so unique and it was a new way to approach some of the comic book elements. And lets face it in the 90's Burton was quite popular and even so today. Again the movie would've been visually groundbreaking and i hope we get more leaks in the future, even perhaps more screen tests, etc.

 

[echostation]

I don't see any Alien Blue costume with a blood red cape? which costume are you talking about? I only see a bunch of Capeless ridiculous looking suits, one of which is blue, none of them have any blood red cape though

 

[Wolfman]

Indeed, DCnightwing23. I don't care what anyone says, Superman Lives could have been the best thing ever happened to Superman franchise, if made.

 

[echostation]

Visually it would've been amazing, that's it... nothing else... the rest of it looked like ****

 

[DCnightwing23]

True, but i think the film tends to get hated on by the cast, but Burton is known, especially with Batman for casting actors that you would'nt think would work but at the end worked perfectly, for Superman, Burton casted Cage which to this day gets hated on and people are like WTF? I tend too as well at times, but then again he did cast Keaton as Batman and that worked out perfectly imo. Visually it would have been amazing, i think the story wouldve been pretty strong, and the fact it had some comic book storylines that ive never seen done in live action yet wouldve been really interesting to see.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Courtney Cox as Lois was perfect!

and it would have been cool to see Michael Keaton's cameo as Bruce Wayne

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Burton didn't cast Cage, Jon Peters did.

Cage's casting as Superman actually predated Burton's hiring but he agreed to make the film with Cage as the lead. Rumor had it, Burton's own personal casting choice for Superman would have been Ralph Fiennes.

 

[GinsterHead]

Blimey. And I thought the Superman Returns suit was bad...

I mean, it would've looked alright on a totally new superhero...but Superman???

 

[Boom]

I don't see any Alien Blue costume with a blood red cape? which costume are you talking about? I only see a bunch of Capeless ridiculous looking suits, one of which is blue, none of them have any blood red cape though

 

[d_osborn]

the elemental pre-production pics are only of the "eradicator" suit that forms onto clark at the fortress of solitude after he dies. the traditional suit was definitely going to be in the film... and depending on what stage of production, either a black/red or dark blue/red suit after supes sheds the eradicator.

 

[Juggernaut33]

Actually, the transparent suit is the 1st stage of the "Eradicator/K" healing suit which protects Superman's wounded body.

As you can see on the picture above, the "resurrective suit" was meant to show the inside of Superman's body and make the musculations & tendons look very robotic. I guess they kept the basic idea of a transparent suit but they tried to come up with different textures for the inside of the suit.

And then the suit would have gone into its 2nd stage with a black liquid covering it and turning solid, giving birth to this:

Now, about the whole L.E.D. covered suit. In Dan Gilroy's latest version of the screenplay (dated 20 Spetember 1998, which is the last draft written with Tim Burton still attached to direct), when Superman busts out of his tomb in the "K" ressurective suit, he tries to take on a bunch of thugs trying to rape a woman, but he quickly realizes that he's now powerless. Suddenly, a green light runs through the contours of his muscles, and Superman regains something like a tenth of his actual powers. So that's what the whole light test thing is all about and I guess they were trying different colours of light, different patterns, etc.

Hope this shines some light on the nature of these images and what Tim Burton was trying to do with his Superman film. But for those of you who are still wondering, the answer is no, none of the suits above is the "classic" Superman suit that the Man of Steel would have worn at the beginning of the film.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Since this was a 90's era film, I still would have had faith in Burton directing it, though depending on my age I may have been too young to care. I say this in that Burton has had his own visual style since the very beginning, and while his Batman films, especially Batman Returns, were dark and gothic and kind of strange, but were great for Superman. The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't even fully a Burton project and that style suited it just fine. The Corpse Bride was Burton and his style worked fine. Sleepy Hollow was great looking. Edward Scissorhands worked too. Hell I never knew the new Planet of the Apes (as bad as the remake is) was a Burton movie because it didnt resemble his style much at all. It was really only after movies like Charlie and the Chocloate Factory and Alice that it seems he's fallen into the twisted style, even for G and PG-rated films. So at the time, yes I think I could have been behind this. Though the shiny suit is bad, the ideas behind what it really was make me wish this had come to be a little bit.

 

[El Payaso]

Ah, pictures of unfinished suit. The best and most accurate way to judge a movie that was never even made.

 

[Papa Burgundy]

burtons a hack

 

[Cain]

burtons a hack

Really?!? cause last time I checked he had quite a few movies on his resume that proved otherwise.

 

[bapi]

For me, it's more interesting to see a different comic book movie which is not for everyone than to see those Marvel movies which look almost same like IM 1 and 2, TIH and based on CC Preview... Thor.

 

[04nbod]

A 90's Superman suit that looks as if it came from the 90's. Shocking! Have people seen 90's comics, this is not out of place with the extreeeeem! visual style of back then. It doesn't make it good, it makes it understandable. Just as understandable as a neon Gotham in Batman and Robin

 

[Sub-Zero]

i know burton has said he hates comic books or something, but i'd like to see his vision of superman in graphic novel form. it wouldve been an interesting take on the character.

people are up in arms with nic cage being cast as superman, but really most of the suggestions being made now by posters are far worse. back in the 90s cage was the go to actor. he was in almost every big movie that will smith wasn't in. conventionally he doesn't look like superman, but many of the current fan favorite suggestions don't either.

 

[Sam]

Im so happy this movie never get made!

 

[I Am The Knight]

I think the movie looks fascinating, but I'm also sort of glad it never got made. I have a love/hate relationship with this project.

 

[El Payaso]

i know burton has said he hates comic books or something,

He never ever said that. In fact he has said that his favourite comic book is The Killing Joke.

 

[d_osborn]

In Dan Gilroy's latest version of the screenplay (dated 20 Spetember 1998, which is the last draft written with Tim Burton still attached to direct)...

Juggernaut33, do you have a link for the 9/20/98 gilroy draft? i have one or two gilroy drafts from early 98, but not that particular one. i'd love to read it!

 

[TruerToTheCore]

We dodged a bullet here.

Too bad Superman Returns used the machine gun some years later. t:

 

[Sawyer]

We dodged a bullet here.

Too bad Superman Returns used the machine gun some years later. t:

I dont know if that's really a fair statement. Both of the approaches for SL and SR were just so far at the opposite ends of the spectrum from one another. Burton's approach here looks like it was going overboard with how much it was trying to be different than what came before it. Singer, however, stayed so close to the first two movies that the end result was painfully dull and unimaginative.