The film’s skyrocketing budget forced studio Warner Bros. Tensions between Burton and seemingly unhinged producer Jon Peters (who started in the business as Barbra Streisand’s hairdresser!) started to escalate, however, and the project began to teeter. Construction, meanwhile, was started on the film’s sets and costumes. With Burton on board, screenwriter Wesley Strick ( Cape Fear) was brought in to rework the script, which sparked off a long-standing feud between the ever-mouthy Kevin Smith and his once-intended director. In what could have been the role of a lifetime, renowned comic book nut Nicolas Cage (who later called his son Kal-El, Superman’s Krypton birth name) signed on to play The Man Of Steel, with various other casting rumours (Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen, Tim Allen as Brainiac, Courteney Cox as Lois Lane and Michael Keaton as a possibly guest starring Batman) whirling through the media with varying degrees of accuracy. Renowned comic book geek and writer/director Kevin Smith ( Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Zack And Miri Make A Porno) had written a script entitled Superman Lives (which included various ridiculous plot points enforced by producer Jon Peters, which Smith hilariously discusses on his An Evening With Kevin Smith spoken word DVD), and Burton was keen to make it happen. Reports of director Tim Burton’s efforts to get a Superman film on screen were all over the press in the late nineties.

Here is a fistful of fascinating films-that-never-were from directors who fought tooth-and-nail to get them made…but ultimately saw their beloved projects dashed on the rocks of ego, financial malfeasance, fading interest, an uncaring industry, and death itself. Sometimes, not even the most powerful filmmakers can get their dream projects off the ground and into production.

The Long Green Shore by John Hepworth