Superman 5: Reborn with Christopher Reeve...what might have been?

[Captain Craig]

Over at another site while discussing the Green Lantern movie and as happens new info caused a break down into other things this popped up by a poster.

I had not heard of this attempt to reboot the Superman Saga with a fifth entry starring Christopher Reeve and having Brainiac as the villain + featuring the bottle city of Kandor.

But the actor was set to reprise the role in Superman V: Superman Reborn, based on an idea by comic book writer Cary Bates.

"The intent was to leapfrog over Superman III and especially IV, and return the series to the high mark achieved in 1 and 2," Bates told Newsarama. "[It was] our desire to do a fully developed, balls-out science fiction story pitting Superman and Brainiac against each other mano a mano."

"[Brainiac] comes to Earth for the first time and shrinks Metropolis, adding it to his interplanetary collection of miniaturized cities," Bates explained. "But because he becomes aware of the unique super-powered being in his latest acquisition, Brainiac miniaturizes himself and ventures into the bottled Metropolis in person. This leads to a knock-down drag-out battle that ends in what appears to be Superman’s death."

The Brainiac in Superman V would have been a combination of what were, at the time, the most seminal versions of the character: the green-skinned human from the '50s and '60s, and the robot version introduced by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane in the '80s.

Apparently, as the article goes on to say, the rights reverted and a decision was made to produce Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman over another film. Apparently this script got little or no attention according to the article.

During that time is when the Superman property was in it's development hell and all the ideas of Nic Cage as Superman et all sprung up.

Sounds like the genesis of what led to the Superman film property getting in such dire straits. I'd just never heard this part of it before and didn't recall it discussed here before.

 

[marillion]

Wow... Cool concept... It would have had to happen quickly on the heels of Supes IV, though, as Reeve was already starting to look a little too old for the role. I like the idea for the current round of re-booting going on!

 

[Captaindemotion]

I do remember reading about this at the time. Apparently it was a great script, but despite the success of Tim Burton's Batman, they just couldn't get it off the ground. It would have been lovely to see Reeve back in the costume one last time - especially in an actually decent movie!