Nicolas Cage almost played Superman: What went wrong then?

Oscar-winning Hollywood star Nicolas Cage almost starred as DC Comics’ superhero once in a 1998 shelved film ‘Superman Lives’.

Watch ARY News live on live.arynews.tv

DC Studios’ latest offering, Ezra Miller-led ‘The Flash’ came with a sweet surprise for cine-goers last week, featuring an array of cameos including Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill as well as the most surprising Nicolas Cage, who appeared as an alternate version of Superman.

While everyone is aware of Cage’s outing as the superhero character in supposed-to-be-titled ‘Superman Lives’, from BTS footage and costume fittings etc which were leaked many years ago, the Tim Burton film never moved beyond pre-production, despite the latter’s hits ‘Batman’ and ‘Batman Returns’. In an interview, Cage once explained the reason behind the passionate project being cancelled. He revealed that Burton’s previous ‘Mars Attacks’ tanked at the Box Office, which lead to their collaboration being shelved.

“They wanted [director] Renny Harlin to do the movie. But I thought, if I’m going to do this, it’s such a bullseye to hit … I said, this has to be Tim Burton. I called Tim and said, ‘Would you do this?’ and Tim said yes,” Cage recalled.

He added, “These movies [Mars Attack] that are really weird, that challenge and break ground; they p*ss a lot of people off. I think they got cold feet.”

About his version of Superman, Cage had described, “It was more of a 1980s Superman with, like, the samurai black long hair … sort of emo Superman, but we never got there.”

When Angelina Jolie narrowly escaped a bullet while shooting THIS film