Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: christopher mcquarrie, dc studios, film, superman, Warner Bros

Mission: Impossible Director Talks Scrapped Superman Movie

The director of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has revealed a few new details about the scope of his scrapped Superman film.

Superman has been a cinematic staple for decades, with numerous films bringing the iconic hero to life. From Christopher Reeve's beloved portrayal in the late 1970s and '80s to Henry Cavill's modern take in Man of Steel, the character has seen various interpretations, each attempting to capture the essence of the Last Son of Krypton. However, alongside the films that made it to the big screen, there exists a fascinating history of Superman movies that never saw the light of day. And over the years, several ambitious projects were scrapped before production could begin.

Tim Burton's Superman Lives, starring Nicolas Cage, remains one of the most infamous canceled films, with concept art and costume tests hinting at a radically different vision for the hero. J.J. Abrams also had a project, Superman: Flyby, which aimed to reboot the franchise in the early 2000s but ultimately never materialized. More recently, Zack Snyder's Man of Steel sequel was abandoned as DC Studios shifted its focus to new creative directions. Though, one of the most intriguing unmade Superman films comes from Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie, who worked with Cavill on Mission: Impossible – Fallout, had pitched a film that would have explored the character in a deeply emotional and cinematic way.

Christopher McQuarrie Talks Canceled Superman Story and Opening Sequence

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McQuarrie revealed his vision for the film's opening sequence, explaining, "The first five minutes of my Superman movie, which was… imagine Pixar's Up, a sequence with no dialogue that covered that character in the first five minutes," McQuarrie explained. "The first five minutes of the movie was a setup after which you knew exactly what made Superman tick, and exactly what Superman was most afraid of, and why Superman made the choices that he made, and it would have been epic. It would have been epic, in five minutes, the scale of the movie would have been absolutely extraordinary".

Despite the excitement surrounding McQuarrie's vision, his Superman film clearly never moved forward. And with DC Studios now charting a new course for the character, fans can only wonder what might have been. Yet, as history has shown, Superman's cinematic journey is far from over—there's always another flight waiting on the horizon (and in this case, taking place in July of this year).

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