Batman Triumphant vs Superman Lives

The world will never really know which of these unmade films would have been best but when looking at the scripts and story ideas, I think it's safe to say fans of both Superheroes (and the studios) jumped the proverbial shark. Halfway through the filming of Batman & Robin the studio, so impressed with what had been shot so far, decided to green light a sequel. Akiva Goldsman stepped down as writer (a good thing) and Mark Protosevich was hired in his place. The initial title attached to the sequel was Batman Triumphant but would also be known as Batman Unchained later on in the project. Batman would return with Robin and Batgirl at his side and his main enemy was to be The Scarecrow, whose appearance in the franchise was felt long overdue by the fans. Joel Schumacher was set to return as director and it was hoped George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell and Alicia Silverstone would also stay on. The Scarecrow was offered to Nicholas Cage who was said to be very interested in the part and I have to say it is something I would have loved to see. I'm thinking his character could have been somewhere between Cage's Castor Troy (Face/Off) and Peter Loew (Vampire's Kiss) with Jason Voorhees' original hessian sack mask as seen in Friday the 13th Part 2. It could have been something really good, and at least something so bad it was good. The Bat trio would have been up against fan favourite Harley Quinn (said to be played by either Courtney Love or Madonna) who would have been written in as The Jokers daughter out for revenge, rather than his long suffering girlfriend. If that weren't enough, all of Batman's previous villains would have appeared as cameos, thanks to The Scarecrow's powers of hallucination. It's not clear if everyone was on board with this idea but apparently Jack Nicholson was keen and in talks to reprise his role as The Joker. It looked like an altogether darker approach to the character with fear being the dish of the day. Sounds like it could have been a fascinating chapter for the Superhero but maybe the wrong mood for Schumacher's style. Batman & Robin failed to make as much as Batman Forever, everyone hated it, George Clooney vowed never to wear the cape again and even Schumacher said he'd lost his passion for the character. It was awful and everyone knew it, Batman Triumphant would never be. Meanwhile, over in Metropolis, Superman was also having trouble. The studios were still having issues with the big Superman reboot. Again, how the hell do you follow an act like Christopher Reeve. He is and will probably always be, the quintessential Superman. Tim Burton had brought the Batman franchise back to life, the studio wanted him to do the same for his buddy Supes. So during a large portion of the 1990's writers were hired and ideas swapped on how best to approach such a project. There was little point trying to create Superman's origin story, the 1978 film did that and it was deemed unbeatable. The first two films were hard to beat, the last two films had many serious issues they wanted to avoid, although, you might just appreciate Superman IV: The Quest for Peace just that little bit more knowing the full story. Jon Peters, the would be producer of Superman Lives (previously titled Superman Reborn), is a nut job. He clearly knew very little about Superman before he bought the movie rights. The young Kevin Smith who was hired as an initial script writer recalls just how ridiculous his meetings with Peters was in the brilliant 2015 documentary The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?. Peters told Smith that he could tell any story he wanted but he had three big rules. Number one rules was that Superman wouldn't have the ability to fly. Number two was that Superman was not to wear 'that ridiculous suit' anymore and number three, my personal favourite, was that at some point towards the end of the film there had to be the inclusion of a giant mechanical spider. Smith was understandably confused but he bashed out a reasonably interesting script all the same that would go from writer to writer, with each script thrown out. Burton saw Smith kicked off the project, he has since had nothing nice to say about the director. Each version of script was based on the infamous The Death of Superman story found in what is still, the most read (and over hyped) comic of all time. The Main villain would have been Doomsday but he would have been unleashed by Brainiac who would have made his big screen debut. Superman would have Jimmy Olsen (played by Chris Rock) as a comedy side-kick while Brainiac would have a robot companion called L-Ron who would be like 'A gay R2-D2 but with attitude'. Certain events and characters were changed but that was about the crux of it. After seeing Nicolas Cage's reaction to 'The Bees' in the utterly awful Wicker Man remake, I hate to think what his Superman's reaction to Kryptonite would have been. The whole project was eventually scrapped and J.J. Abrams took over the project and renamed it Superman Flyby. Nicolas Cage was dropped, Tim Burton walked (but still got paid handsomely) and Peters went on to film Wild Wild West and finally got his giant mechanical spider. Superman Lives had some nice visual ideas but Batman had the better story. Both would have awful. In the battle of what could have been I'd have to say Batman.

In this particular episode of Superman vs Batman (or a gay R2-D2 but with attitude vs Madonna as Harley Quinn) - Batman wins!