Among the many unmade Superman movies that languished in development hell over the years, few were as strange as Superman Reborn — the one that almost brought Christopher Reeve back for a fifth time and featured a script where Superman’s consciousness and lifeforce would be transferred to Lois Lane, causing her to experience a miraculous pregnancy. She would give birth to a male baby who ages faster in just weeks before he becomes an adult, resulting in the rebirth of Superman.
A Fifth Movie After Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Decades before Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, and David Corenswet took over the coveted role of Clark Kent/Superman in their respective Superman movies, there was a plan for Christopher Reeve to return for the fifth time back in the early ‘90s. That movie would be the aptly-titled Superman Reborn. Considering Superman IV: The Quest for Peace nosedived with a disappointing $37 million on a $17 million budget when it opened during the summer of 1987, a fifth movie would have been out of the question. And yet, that didn’t stop the filmmakers from trying to continue with another Superman movie, albeit in a string of development hell.
How Cannon Films Nearly Made Superman V Before It All Collapsed
Before Superman Reborn was even pitched, Cannon Films had already planned Superman V, even going as far as securing Albert Pyun to direct the sequel. Pyun is no stranger to making low-budget genre films, and the fact that he could transform his 1982’s $4 million-budgeted The Sword and the Sorcerer into box-office gold to the tune of $39.1 million made him an ideal candidate. This is especially true after Cannon Films underwent a financial crisis, forcing the studio to cut costs even during the making of Superman IV from the initial $36 million to $17 million.
In 1987 alone, Cannon Films wasn’t just plagued by the box-office fiasco of Superman IV, but also the release of Stallone-led Over the Top and the live-action adaptation of Masters of the Universe. By hiring Pyun, who could deliver films in a fast turnaround time and even had a knack for optimizing whatever limited resources were available, this allowed Cannon Films recycled 45 minutes of unreleased footage from Superman IV into brand-new shots.
At one point, the studio targeted a July 1989 release date, only to end up sinking deeper into the financial ruins. But the project was ultimately cancelled and ended up with the film rights reverted back to Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the father-and-son producing duo behind the first three Superman movies, in 1990.
The Salkind-Era Superman Reborn Script That Introduced Brainiac and Killed Superman
By the time the Superman film rights were returned to the Salkinds, the superhero movie genre had already set a new benchmark in the form of Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, earning big money for Warner Bros. In 1991, the Salkinds enlisted Mark Jones and Cary Bates, who both co-wrote the producers’ Superboy television series between the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, to come up with a script for the fifth Superman movie, a.k.a Superman Reborn. The ambitious script would be positioned as a direct sequel to Superman II, ignoring the events of Superman III and Superman IV altogether, especially given the latter two’s mixed results.
It centers on the return of Superman, battling against a new threat named Brainiac. The latter, who is a highly intelligent extraterrestrial android, arrives on Earth to shrink Metropolis as part of his collection of miniaturized cities using his cosmic shrinking ray. Brainiac would place the shrunken Metropolis into a glass bottle aboard his ship alongside other miniaturized interplanetary cities. This includes Kandor, the capital city of Krypton, which Brainiac had stolen, shrunken, and bottled long before Superman’s home planet was destroyed.
With Metropolis’s general population, including Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, trapped in the shrunken form, it’s up to Superman to save them and face Brainiac. The story also includes the tragic death of Superman after his brutal encounter with Brainiac, and the heartbreaking moment of Lois Lane embracing him in her arms and listening to Superman’s final words before he physically died.
Unfortunately, the project was killed as the script failed to reach the pre-production stage. It didn’t help either when the Salkinds’ big-budget historical epic of 1992’s Christopher Columbus: The Discovery ended up as a massive flop, grossing only $8.6 million on a hefty $45 million budget. The massive financial loss would mark the end of the Salkinds’ era, forcing them into bankruptcy. With the Salkinds stuck in heavy debt, they had no choice but to sell the Superman film rights back to Warner Bros. in 1993.
How Warner Bros. Inherited Superman Reborn — and Made It Even Weirder
In 1992, DC Comics published one of the most celebrated crossover story events titled The Death of Superman, an ironic parallel to Cary Bates and Mark Jones’ initial 1991 draft focusing on the demise and resurrection of Man of Steel. The Death of Superman became a huge success, even reaching the status of a pop-culture phenomenon that Warner Bros. saw as a can’t-miss opportunity to see it as a launchpad for their movie.
The studio handed the reins to Jon Peters, the producer behind the highly successful Batman in 1989. So, the first thing he did was enlist screenwriter Jonathan Lemkin, best known for his TV works in Hill Street Blues and 21 Jump Street, to write a draft of Superman Reborn. The story would be partly inspired by The Death of Superman, which revolves around the Man of Steel’s battle against the formidable Doomsday.
Before Superman’s eventual death, he ends up confessing his love to Lois Lane, and, ironically similar to Bates and Jones’ draft during the Salkinds era, Lemkin’s story incorporates the metaphysical pregnancy plot. This results in the resurrection of Superman after Lois’s baby boy has undergone rapid aging into adulthood, and becomes the new Man of Steel.
Warner Bros. didn’t like it, and they turned to Gregory Poirier from TV’s The Adventures of Dynamo Duck to rewrite Superman Reborn extensively. His version retains the Doomsday angle but discards the magic pregnancy and superbaby plot altogether, and replaces it with the involvement of a top-secret government project in charge of reviving the Man of Steel. He also added a few new villains, including Brainiac, Parasite, and Silver Banshee.
How Kevin Smith Killed Superman Reborn and Launched Superman Lives
However, Poirier’s draft didn’t work out in the end after Warner Bros. met with director Kevin Smith, a then-breakout director of 1994’s Clerks and a comic-book enthusiast himself. Smith went through Poirier’s draft and ended up hating it, even comparing his version of Superman Reborn to the campy TV show of Batman.
Gregory Poirier’s heavy rewrites on the Superman Reborn draft marked the final nail in the coffin. Kevin Smith’s interference, coupled with Warner Bros. executives worrying over the fan backlash if they proceeded with the Superman Reborn concept, led the studio to retire the working title altogether.
In 1996, Smith was hired to come up with his own version, resulting in the making of Superman Lives with Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage on board as the director and the actor who played the role, respectively. It was close to happening, complete with location scouting and Cage doing a costume test, but ultimately scrapped altogether after years of behind-the-scenes setbacks.
How Christopher Reeve’s Tragic Accident Ended Any Hope of His Return
The proposed Superman Reborn was intended to court the return of Christopher Reeve for the fifth time. But the project has gone through a mess of development hell for years, from the era of Cannon Films to the Salkinds, and finally, Warner Bros. Then, in 1995, everything changed when Reeve ended up in a tragic accident following an equestrian competition gone wrong, leaving the actor paralyzed from the neck down.
Confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, Reeve’s chance of playing Superman was practically impossible, even though he continued to act, including the 1998 TV movie remake of Rear Window. He did return to the Superman story, albeit in a TV series in Smallville, but showing up as wealthy scientist Dr. Virgil Swann in two episodes in Season 2 and 3 in 2003 and 2004.
Reeve passed away on October 10, 2004, at the age of 52, just months after his guest appearance in Smallville Season 3 titled Legacy was aired in April that year. The Superman movie that was supposed to bring him back never happened; what no one could take away was that, for an entire generation, Christopher Reeve was Superman — and no accident, no development hell, and no studio decision ever changed that.
