This came as a BIG shock to me... You'll have to wait for it though.

By now, everyone on these boards should know I am the worlds only "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace" fan. Hopefully, you also know that I am a J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, M:I III, JoyRide) fan.

I completely missed the hype back in 2003 when J.J. Abrams script for a Superman movie was big news. Heck, I didn't know who is was until 2005. But some of you might remember the stink that Ain't It Cool News made when they posted an early review of his script.
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=13350

This negative internet buzz help kill the project... not mentioning inflated egos, incompetent producers, rising budgets, and insane directors...

I missed all this until I picked up this week's Entertainment Weekly which ran a story about the Supermans that might have been. I saw that Abrams wrote a draft and I became obsessed with finding it. The man's a genius in my film making-wannabe eyes.

An hour on the internet turned up nothing. What I did have was the review by Ain't It Cool News. I don't really like the personalities on that site, so I try to avoid their material as much as possible. But what was this disaster that my idol had written? I started to read their review.

After BSing for several paragraphs the reviewer begins that Krypton didn't explode, instead the script begins with a frizzled reporter...

"Wait a minute..." I say to myself... That sounds familiar. I read the review a bit longer and all of it sounded like something I had read before...

I rushed to the bookshelf and pulled out a binder labeled: Mystery Superman script. I flip it open and on the first page was the description of a frizzled reporter... ninja cloaks... and "force of a thousand hurricanes"... For some odd reason, I've owned the J.J. Abrams script for about a year.

WHAT A TWIST!

The history of the Abrams script:
I tried to order the script for "Superman IV" from a script vendor along with two other scripts. I will never do business with them again, because they managed to screw up two orders. I had ordered the script to "Masters of the Universe; The Motion Picture" which arrived fine. It was an early draft and a delightful read.

The other script was supposed to be "Chronicles of Riddick", instead I got the David Hayter (Solid Snake) draft of "Pitch Black 2"... okay, that's cool. I love Solid Snake...

But then there's "Superman IV". The cover is a picture of the movie poster and then script. No credit page to the authors like the previous two scripts had. It was clear it was NOT the script to "Superman IV" but some phantom script. Because there was no credit page, I had no idea who wrote it.

Only now do I know that is was written by the genius J.J. Abrams.

OOOOOooooooooooo, SWEET IRONY!!!!

DarkMaze wrote:

Hot damn! Too cool. So how is it?

I'm reading it as I type. It's pretty crazy and nonlinear... but what would you expect?

EDIT: I never finished reading it the first time I got it, because it sounded so insanely unlike Superman IV. Throwing away not only continunity of Superman III, but the first two films as well. I had no reference for the script and had no idea it was supposed to be a reimagining.

You know, there's a lot of "fucks" in this thing in the descriptions. Kinda makes me wonder if any of the PG family films I've enjoyed over the years had a ton of profanity in the script that I never knew about.

Example of use:

EXCERPT:
TY-ZOR (CON'T)
I need to find my cousin. Tell me where he is... and your wife will live. Simple.

Jor-El stares at his fucking nephew -- blind with rage and horror --

LARA
Never.

PHEW! Just finished reading the script (FINALLY! - and people say I never finish things...).

Overall, I actually enjoyed it. There's a few things that are odd, some things which are the best Superman material I have ever read, and then some things that just don't work.

It's an intense script. Unlike that weak Singer version, J.J.'s script managed to combine heart and action. The best parts of the script are the moments of humanity. The whole Smallville sequence is the best version of Superman's origins I have ever read/seen/encountered hands down. The heart is there, we feel Clark's pain growing up, we have a few laughs, share in a few cries.

Things that didn't quite work is the Superman/Lois Lane relationship. For the time they spend together in the script, it's hard for me to believe they are so insanely in love with each other as they are by the end of the script. I believe why Clark is in love with Lois, but I don't think the same goes for Lois. Then again the whole flying together montage is a paragraph in the script which would've been expanded in the film. I'm sure that would've helped.

The action is FURIOUS! Not only is the action better than in any superhero movie to date, I'd say it rivals "King Kong" in terms of spectacle and emotional involvedness. While Superman may fight black suited ninjas towards the end there, I did find myself involved with the action. I wanted Superman to win and felt sympathetic whenever there was a moment of defeat.

That gets me to the whole Krypton subplot. I really didn't care what was going on with Krypton's civil war or Jor-El's exile. While I understand Superman II would've taken place on Krypton leading up to its destruction, there wasn't enough going on to get me involved. There wasn't a strong narrative there nor was there any relatable characters.

As I've already blown the ending, this script ends where "Superman Returns" begins. Superman LEAVES Earth for Krypton. However, in this version, he goes off to end civil war which cripples his mother planet. It is worth mentioning he leaves from Smallville in the SAME ship he arrives in Smallville in the new movie. IRONY!

Wait, what is this twist with Lex Luthor I keep hearing about? That's right... Lex is Kryptonian in this script. It is revealed 10 pages before it ends, Superman and he fight, Lex loses, and he is sent to jail with Kryptonite being held "near" him. Does it ruin the script? Nah. Does it work? It would've pissed off everyone if this made it into the film. But it's worth mentioning Lex is really well written once he is fired from the CIA and before he starts flying. So it's not a totally waste.

I finally found this script online. My script is slightly different as it has a different serial code, missing the title page, the title on page 2, and the last page. So if anyone is curious to read the script themselves, you are able to.

I really enjoyed the script. It's a cool experiment. It would've made an entertaining film, just not a perfect one. I did like it light years above Singer's version, but that's what you get when you have a physical movie pitted against a metaphysical movie that was only watched through the mind's eye.

Cheers!

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

Where do you get these scripts? Apparently, Kevin Smith wrote a Superman movie as well that I'd be interested in reading. Apparently when he presented it to the studio they said something along the lines of "This film is fantastic! But it'll cost $500 million to make, so fuck you!"

* I accidentally received the script instead of a script for Superman IV but an unnamed screenplay supplier. They also f'ed up another order by giving me another script that never got made. Kinda mad I didn't get the shooting drafts, but historically the scripts are very entertaining reads.

*The Kevin Smith script was rejected once Tim Burton came on board. He wanted his own creative team to develop it.

*The Kevin Smith script (which I'm currently rereading) is available online from almost any script site.

Syd Lexia wrote:

I remember seeing a printed interview with Kevin Smith where he said that one of the producers didn't like his script and he wanted him to add all sorts of stupid shit into it. Like say, Braniac fighting a polar bear in the Fortress of Solitude.

That's true. Kevin also goes into great detail about he and Jon Peters on the DVD "An Evening With Kevin Smith". Basically, here's the rules Peters wanted:

1. I don't want to see him in that suit. Too faggy.
2. I don't want to see him fly. Carrying people? That's bullshit.
3. He has to fight a giant spider in the third act. They are more ferocious killers in the insect kingdom and I want a King Kong moment of this thing revealed.
4. There needs to be an action beat ever 10-15 pages. Like when Braniac goes to the Fortress of Solitude, can't he fight Superman's guards. (Kevin asks: Why would Superman need guards? And it's called the Fortess of Solitude). Peters answers that Superman should have polar bears because they are the most ferocious killers in the animal kingdom.
5. Sean Penn would make an excellent Superman, because he has the eyes of a stone cold killer.

Peters is moron. All his notes were thrown out with "Returns" and put into "Wild, Wild West" instead.