Other Miscellaneous Superman Stuff
Exclusive “Superman vs. Hollywood” Excerpt
Excerpt about Jon Peters from Chapter 14 of "Superman vs. Hollywood".
- Peters, who had genuinely adored Batman, had mixed emotions about the Man of Steel. The producer fancied himself a streetwise rebel and related to the scowling determination and dour attitude of the Dark Knight. Superman, in contrast, was a model of nobility in both appearance and demeanor.
Batman, in short, was a badass. Superman, not so much.
Fortuitously, DC had recently injected an aura of melancholy into Superman's life when he was "killed" at the hands of alien brute Doomsday. It was part of a latter-day movement in comics that spotlighted the emotionally wounded over the bright parade of more gleeful heroes. Readers dismissed Spider-Man's joy at swinging through the Manhattan skyline; they preferred to see him buried alive at the hands of nemesis Kraven the Hunter, who committed suicide at the end of the tale. The Punisher was essentially Batman without a moral compass, a vigilante who shot criminals dead rather than leave them to a depressed justice system. (In a true sign of the times, the gun-toting sociopath even crossed paths with perpetually flummoxed teenager Archie in one of the most bizarre intercompany amalgamations ever, The Punisher Meets Archie.)
Peters found the "Death of Superman" story arc to be sufficiently angst filled. He contacted Warner-controlled screenwriter Jonathan Lemkin, who had done some episodic television work and had several unproduced screenplays circulating at the studio, including a well-received draft for a fourth entry in Donner's seemingly endless Lethal Weapon series. With his experience in multiple genres from sci-if to action to horror, Lemkin was believed to have the proper mentality for the hero's fantastic journey beyond death.
Lemkin was met with two constrictive mandates from the studio and Peters. Warner asked to see his ideas before the 1995 Toy Fair, which would help the studio connect with potential toy licensees and reestablish Superman as a viable marketing brand. Peters himself took Lemkin aside and insisted that Superman never be seen flying on-screen. He hated the conceit of Superman zipping around in the air. It struck him as ridiculous and juvenile.
Bound by the superficial restrictions of both his producer and his employer, Lemkin sequestered himself to hammer out an outline for Superman Reborn, a loose adaptation of DC's media event. Lemkin, who held no particular allegiance to the character's history, structured a story that held its hero in much the same regard as Warner's Batman Forever. That sequel, developed without the input of Tim Burton, was essentially a return to the Adam West mentality of mocking the mythology. Val Kilmer's Batman sported protruding nipples on his sculpted rubber outfit; the morose vigilante loosened up enough to spout "Chicks love the car" when pondering the origins of his sex appeal. Warner had more or less coerced director Joel Schumacher into delivering a two-hour toy commercial. The result was an incoherent mess.
In Lemkin's Superman Reborn, as in the comics, Superman is felled at the hands of Doomsday. As he lies dying in Lois's arms, the hero infuses his "spirit" into his Earth lover, impregnating her like the Virgin Mary before expiring. Their progeny grows up in record time to save the world from the villain's threat. Superman's rebirth, literal in the comics, would be the result of a bloodline successor in the film.
Copyright © 2008 Jake Rossen. All rights reserved. Excerpt used here with permission of author.