World Looking for Superman Lives by Wesley Strick

[Binker]

The script or even a summary; I'am looking for anything regarding Strick's Superman Lives script. Any ideas, suggestions, tec.?

 

[Spidermatrix53]

I don't know, I personally only have Dan Gilroy's and Kevin Smith's scripts.

Have you run a Google search?

 

[Binker]

I did. I would know Superman-v might've had something, if not anything, but that site is all but gone.

 

[Daryl]

Little is known of Wesley Strick's draft of the Superman Lives script. After Burton came onboard as a director, he requiered that the script by Kevin Smith be completely rewritten as he wanted to create his own version of Superman. He chose Wesley Strick to completely retool Kevin Smith's script, as he had already worked with him on Batman Returns where Strick was the writer on set. According to Strick, the studio promised Burton total creative control over the project. They pretty much left Burton, Cage and Strick to their own device, they rarely heard from the studio or Peters while they were writing the official "Tim Burton draft" of the screenplay. Burton and Cage wanted to explore the "alien among us" side of Superman, bring more psychology to what Burton considered a two-dimensional character.

Strick droped the idea of Brainiac blocking out the sun, making Superman powerless as he felt the concept was too cartoonish, remiding him of a Simpsons episode where Burns did the same thing. He came up with the idea of merging Lex Luthor and Brainiac into one character, the schizophrenic megalomeniac supervilain Lexiac. He also got rid of the Eradicator and replaced it with K, the living essence of Krypton.

Abidingby Burton's rule of making Superman a more complex individual, Strick emphasized the schizophrenic nature of the character, adding Kal-El as a third distinctive persona.

He also switched Deadshot for the long-shelved villain Toyman, perfectly suited to Tim Burton's quirky style.

Burton toyed with the idea of casting Jim Carey in the role of Brainiac, and asked Strick to rewrite the part to better accomodate the actor's comedic style.

The studio read the new script and hated it.

The script has yet to leak on the internet...

 

[theMan-Bat]

AICN reported that Kevin Spacey would play both Brainiac and Luthor, in a dual role. (This actually lead credence to the rumors of Brainiac as a robot -- Spacey could voice the character -- and the merging of Brainiac and Luthor as "Luthiac", which is somewhat similar to the occurrence in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?")
http://www.supermanhomepage.com/news...ews-movie/0304

Wesley Strick's draft retained producer Jon Peter's influence of not having Superman fly or wear the classic costume, so Nic Cage wasn't found of Strick's draft, it was also budget heavy and Warner were nervous about doing another big budgeted superhero movie since Schumacher's Batman & Robin had just recently bombed.
Dan Gilroy was brought in to do rewrites and get the budget down.
Here are excerpts from the book Superman vs. Hollywood about Superman Lives:

Tim Burton said "it was going to be an expensive movie, and they were a little sensitive because they were getting a lot of bad press that they had just screwed up the Batman franchise. Because of the corporate environment, all of the decisions are basically fear-based. So I think one of the aspects that lead to their decision was that somehow they were going to **** up another franchise.
They made a choice. They had this, and WILD, WILD WEST, and they opted for that and canned this one. It's frustrating."
http://www.mania.com/superman-lives-...cle_21288.html

 

[Daryl]

Also, Kevin Smith ran into a group of Warner Bros execs at San Diego Comic Con 1999, or something. One of them came up to him and said : "Are you the guy that wrote the Superman screenplay where Jim Carey is Brainiac?", Kevin Smith answered: "Heaven's no!", and the exec continued: "Oh gosh, it's so bad, so f..king bad, it's f..king abysmal..."

 

[theMan-Bat]

That's gossip started by a bitter disgruntled Kevin Smith, I don't take everything Kevin Smith said as the word for word gospel truth. I believe Kevin Smith exaggerates when he's telling stories to crowds to make it more colorful and humorous and to take jabs at people he has a grudge against. Physical comedian Jim Carrey as a funny Brainiac sounds like another of Jon Peters' ideas rather than Burton's. Tim Burton's Brainiac was going to be voiced by Kevin Spacey and visually be creepy animatronical mechanized puppets by Steve Johnson and sometimes totally computer-generated.
Tim Burton's concept art for Brainiac...

Brainiac models made during preproduction...

Brainiac utilizes various robotic bodies...

Brainiac's Skull Ship...

Inside Brainiac's Skull Ship...

Brainiac's Skull Ship's console...

Menagerie is a zoological collection of various alien species on Brainiac's Skull Ship in space collected by Brainiac during Brainiac's journeys throughout the cosmos.

Tim Burton's Superman Lives would have been refreshingly creative and different for a Superman film, rather than an attempt at rehashing Richard Donner's Superman like Singer's Superman Returns, Superman Lives was based on the Superman comics, Dan Jurgan's Death and Return of Superman comics, incorporating the android Brainiac created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino in Action Comics #242 (1958) "The Super-Duel in Space" and Brainiac's Skull Ship created by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane in Action Comics #544 (1983) "Rebirth", etc., Brainiac's Menagerie (which originates in Kevin Smith's Superman Lives script) is based on the Preserver's zoo of various alien species in a two-part episode of Superman: The Animated Series called "The Main Man" (1996) by Paul Dini.

 

[Binker]

Oh jeez, I never thought the script was that bad. I had always figured that the script was expensive and Gilroy's draft was a less expensive version of it.

What about the later drafts of Gilroy's SL, as I only have the first draft? Also, was that all of Strick's version, or is there more to the story. I still want that script. I still think Superman Lives could have been very good, but it's the question of which draft.

 

[Daryl]

Oh jeez, I never thought the script was that bad. I had always figured that the script was expensive and Gilroy's draft was a less expensive version of it.

What about the later drafts of Gilroy's SL, as I only have the first draft? Also, was that all of Strick's version, or is there more to the story. I still want that script. I still think Superman Lives could have been very good, but it's the question of which draft.

Well I don't know if it was necessarly bad, let's just say that WB felt it was. Then again their agenda was to make a mindless popcorn flick with tons of toys in it. They were pretty high on Smith's script and it was a mess with too many plot lines. Still they intended to shoot his script...

 

[Binker]

The other thing I want to know is which script does the morphing black suit come from? The one where it had stages seen in the film?
Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

I have read Gilroy's script, but it doesn't have this. He wears the black suit and that's it. No stages written or anything.

 

[batman strikes]

I read the Wesley Strick draft along time ago. Although there is no proof I had because I can't even remember what was in the draft except for a scene at an amusement park where Superman saves people from a rollar coaster that is falling apart. There also was a scene where Clark going to a psychiatrist similar to an earlier draft that came before. Other than that it pretty much was just a terrible version of Kevin Smith's script. In my opinion the best script to come out of Tim Burton's time on the project was Dan Gilroy's that was released.

 

[theMan-Bat]

The morphing look is Superman being resurrected from the dead in the Fortress of Solitude by the Eradicator (renamed K in the later scripts). The resurrection goes back to Kevin Smith's original script.
Kevin Smith's script is still online and it's stated in there:
In Metropolis, inside the casket, the "S" on Superman's chest begins glowing red. Superman's body begins shimmering, and teleports (Trek-style) out of sight, leaving behind his suit, on which the security measures still blink.
In the Fortress of Solitude Superman lays in a Kryptonian resuscitation chamber. Arms folder over his chest, he is immersed in a gelatinous, green mass. His eyes snap open, and he sits bolt upright, breaking out of the dense goo. He throws up a lungful of the muck, inhales deeply. He slowly rises, wiping the jelly from his body and face. The old blue and red togs are gone, replaced by a black resuscitation suit.
My programming allows me to shape-shift into any form of equal mass to my own humanoid structure.
Building you a resuscitive suit -- your trial has left you injured and weakened. These units will expedite your recovery. This will support strained back muscles, these will repair the fracture in your shoulder, your ankles will need the support of this, this will protect your vertebrae.
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_s...es-script.html
All of the preceding Superman Lives scripts feature Superman being resurrected from the dead.
I don't know if any of the scripts specifically state in detail the appearance of Superman in states of resurrection. Tim Burton always has his own ideas for the way he wants things to look in his movies that are not always explicitly described in the scripts by the script writers but are evident in the designs, and the costumes created by Steve Johnson for Superman Lives.

 

[Daryl]

I read the Wesley Strick draft along time ago. Although there is no proof I had because I can't even remember what was in the draft except for a scene at an amusement park where Superman saves people from a rollar coaster that is falling apart. There also was a scene where Clark going to a psychiatrist similar to an earlier draft that came before. Other than that it pretty much was just a terrible version of Kevin Smith's script. In my opinion the best script to come out of Tim Burton's time on the project was Dan Gilroy's that was released.

Seriously??? Where did you find it???

 

[batman strikes]

Seriously??? Where did you find it???

It was on a site called PDF screenplays. It had a lot of rare scripts that you can't find on the net. One in particular was the second draft of Superman Flyby where Lex Luthor was not from Krypton, he was put back to being the owner of Lexcorp. Of course they had other genre's not just superhero scripts but I thought you would like to know. The site was eventually asked to be taken down because Hollywood didn't appreciate scripts being leaked. It was a cool site and I'm still upset that it’s gone.

 

[Daryl]

It was on a site called PDF screenplays. It had a lot of rare scripts that you can't find on the net. One in particular was the second draft of Superman Flyby where Lex Luthor was not from Krypton, he was put back to being the owner of Lexcorp. Of course they had other genre's not just superhero scripts but I thought you would like to know. The site was eventually asked to be taken down because Hollywood didn't appreciate scripts being leaked. It was a cool site and I'm still upset that it’s gone.

Damn, I didn't know the Wesley Strick script had hit the internet at one point. Too bad nobody thought of saving a copy of it on their computer. Hope it will resurface someday.

 

[BH/HHH]

I'm half way through Dan Gilroys script, quite enjoying it actually. I'm having a hard time imagining Nic Cage as Superman though when reading it. I do prefer the Kevin Smith script myself which has some dialogue problems but Gilroy's script has impressed me seeing as though I thought it would suck.

 

[mikey1974]

basically,what the "final" Superman suit at the end would look like,after he returned fully...

 

[BH/HHH]

basically,what the "final" Superman suit at the end would look like,after he returned fully...

I'm pretty sure that last pic is from the McG version

 

[mikey1974]

I'm pretty sure that last pic is from the McG version

not sure...i just know that Burton said in an interview the movie would end on a high note,with Superman's triumphant return to Metropolis in the red and blue suit....

 

[batman strikes]

Damn, I didn't know the Wesley Strick script had hit the internet at one point. Too bad nobody thought of saving a copy of it on their computer. Hope it will resurface someday.

Unfortunately I did have it, but my old computer had crashed before I was able to put it on a flash drive. I was able to save the second draft of Flyby though.

 

[Sky Captain]

Any chance of sharing that?

 

[batman strikes]

Any chance of sharing that?

I don't have a problem with it but dosen't superherohype have a policy about sharing scripts on here?

 

[Cain]

Gilroy's draft was hands down the best one. I would've loved to have seen that movie instead of what we got in it's place. The classic one-two combo known as Wild, Wild, West and Superman Returns

Thank crom for Snyder/Goyer/Nolan.

 

[I Am The Knight]

Some more concept art from Superman Lives:

Spoiler

Source and descriptions for each image at the link below:

http://timburton.jp/tagged/Superman-Lives

 

[bonoferox]

Some more concept art from Superman Lives:

Spoiler

Source and descriptions for each image at the link below:

http://timburton.jp/tagged/Superman-Lives

I'm all for a little change, but dear Christ.