'Metalocalypse' Director Wants To Tell The Tale Of The Tim Burton Superman Movie That Never Was

Movie projects fall apart all the time, and most of the time they simply fade from memory soon afterward. Years later, the people who actually worked on the movie might be the only ones who remember it even existed to begin with. But sometimes a failed effort is so bizarre or so high-profile — or both — that the public is still wondering about it, long after it's become clear that it'll never come to fruition.

One film that definitely falls into the latter category is Superman Lives, a proposed take from the '90s that would've featured Nicolas Cage in the lead role with direction by Tim Burton and a script by Kevin Smith (among others). Even now, over a decade later, we're intrigued when old bits of concept art or toy prototypes surface. While we'll never get to see Burton's vision for ourselves, an upcoming documentary by Jon Schnepp (Metalocalypse, Venture Bros.) aims to explore what could have been. More after the jump.

Schnepp doesn't seem to have compiled any footage yet, and there's no guarantee he'll actually land those interviews with Cage, Burton, Smith, and the rest. The end results may not be exactly what he's envisioning in the video. But it seems like a story worth telling, and one that'll leave us wondering how our pop culture landscape might be different if Burton had succeeded. Would action movies be aiming for sci-fi insanity instead of gritty realism? Would the superhero subgenre still be struggling to recover? Would Burton's career still be flying high?

If you're curious to see more, head over to Schnepp's Kickstarter page to get more info or donate to his project. [via Bleeding Cool]