The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? (2015) poster
2015 · documentary

The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?

Directed by Jon Schnepp1h 45m2015
ElsewhereIMDb7.15kRT79%
  • warm
  • gentle
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Warm, steady, gentle documentary, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

The Death of 'Superman Lives': What Happened? feature film documents the process of development of the ill fated "Superman Lives" movie, that was to be directed by Tim Burton and star Nicolas Cage as the man of steel himself, Superman. The project went through years of development before the plug was pulled, and this documentary interviews the major filmmakers: Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Jon Peters, Dan Gilroy, Colleen Atwood, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and many many more.

Our read · The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? (2015) reads as a warm, steady, grounded documentary entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Video previewNo trailer available for this one.
Where the cast leads
Where to watch
Not on streaming here right now.Check JustWatch Check Letterboxd
More info & search links
Fingerprint

The shape of The Death of "Superman Lives"

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a fascinating documentary on the wild Tim Burton Cage Superman that never was.

ends bittersweetit stays with youmeditativegrips by minute 15attention 3/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou have no interest in comic book movie history or production disasters.

If The Death of "Superman Lives" is your film
Lost in La Mancha (2002)
hilarious tragic tale of ambitious film collapse
(Terry Gilliam's Don Quixote focus)
Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)
legendary failed epic sci-fi pre production
(more concept art and psychedelic)
Hearts of Darkness (1991)
epic making-of chaos on troubled masterpiece
(Apocalypse Now Vietnam jungle shoot)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Your take
Rate it
star-clip-1-0star-clip-2-0star-clip-3-0star-clip-4-0star-clip-5-0
React
Discussion

Discussion

cmd enter to post

What does your Movie DNA look like?

Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.

Calibrate yourself