I’m sure you’ve heard of the failed ’90s Tim Burton film ‘Superman Lives’ that was supposed to star Nic Cage, right? I’ll always remember it because as a kid I was completely obsessed with Superman. This was also the time where I started reading magazines like Cinescape and Wizard, devouring movie news and also experimenting with this new Internet thing, checking out sites like Ain’t It Cool News. Everyone was talking about the Tim Burton Superman movie. Hell, I even had a hardback ‘History of Superman’ type book that mentioned the film being in production at the very end. For better or worse (probably for better), the movie never got made.

Over the past few years there have been some costume tests leaked and concept art, but the whole story has never been told. Luckily, a while back, some plucky geeks took to Kickstarter to fund a documentary called The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened?, and they’ve just released the first trailer. I can’t wait to see this. They scored interviews with Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, and a lot of other people who were involved. The filmmakers have now launched another crowdfunding campaign to get the money needed to finish the doc, and as someone who missed out on the Kickstarter, I’m going to jump on this.

With Superhero movies becoming such a big part of our culture it’s almost just as entertaining learning about the movies that never happened. Superman Lives definitely tops the list and looks worthy of it’s own documentary, but I wish someone would make a documentary that collects stories of all the other Superhero films that got lost in production hell. The Jack Black Green Lantern comedy, the James Cameron Spider-Man movie, George Miller’s Justice League, and all the rest probably have pretty interesting stories behind them too.

Via The Verge

I told myself I was going to go to Toy Fair this year, but it didn’t work out. Hopefully next year! I wish it could have happened because there is a metric shitton of cool stuff getting announced. I’ll be keeping tabs on all the cool stuff and rounding up a lot of links and photos this week.

First off, Playmates teased a ton of new TMNT toys and they all look great. I’m lagging behind with their current Nickelodeon line (I haven’t been hunting for new figures for a while), but I don’t know how much longer I’ll try to get every figure in that line. However, they announced a cutesy line of Turtles called Half-Shell Heroes and they are the cutest things ever, so I will be buying all of those up.

It looks like they’ll release Half Shell Heroes versions of just about every character, a few vehicles and playsets, and even some jumbo versions of the cutesy Turtles. I think I may actually like these more than the main figures in Playmates’ current line. They look so fun.

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Well, I don’t think anyone saw that coming. Everyone was expecting someone like Bryan Cranston to get cast as Lex Luthor, but today WB announced that Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, or Rio if you watch the kind of movies I do) is playing the villain in the Man of Steel sequel.

It’s…an interesting choice. I’m not upset or anything, I think he can pull it off. WB also announced that Jeremy Irons is playing Alfred, which is an equally interesting choice.

It makes sense to show Lex as a young genius and Jesse can definitely do that. The studio probably also wanted to cast someone younger than a Cranston and lock them in to a ton of sequels.

At the end of the day, I don’t really care who plays Lex as long as we get to see him in a big green and purple power suit at some point. Ammiright?

Via SlashFilm

Note from Tommy: I’d like to welcome James Abels to the team of Top Hat Sasquatch contributors.

In the massive shadow of the Batman vs. Superman announcement, speculation has crept out of every corner of the Internet. This is big news, for both DC comics, and fans. Though, to me, it feels a bit off, and I’m not referring to Affleck.

It is clear that DC is making strides toward building their movie universe, from the ground up, and it would seem as if The Man of Steel will be the foundation. Although, when I take a closer look, it was in no way seemingly crafted to serve this purpose. It is also evident that maybe the threat was a little too ambitious for a re-introduction to Superman as well. Before you start an online petition, let me explain.

I would consider Superman the quintessential DC character, even though Batman tends to clean up at the box office. What I mean is that Superman is essentially God. Aside from Kryptonite, there isn’t much you can threaten him with. This has always been an issue for DC to face, and translating the character to the big screen makes it even more complex. The stakes need to be high for Superman, and Man of Steel delivered that. Though, where do we go from here? How can the stakes be higher than saving the entire human race?
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So big news last night from Warner Bros. Ben Affleck is going to be the new version of Batman in 2014’s sequel to Man of Steel. My initial reaction was kind of a quiet Hmm, that’s interesting!, but the rest of the Internet’s was more like ZOMG DAREDEVIL SUCKS HE CAN’T BE BATMANNN!! and I don’t really understand the hate.

No, Ben Affleck isn’t my favorite actor, but he’s a good actor (and a great director, which could come in handy down the road for new solo Bat-films). He’s a big guy and I’m sure he’ll put on a lot of muscle for Batman, and he certainly has the chin for Batman. I think a lot of people have forgotten that there was a Batman before the Nolan movies, and that the character is wide open for interpretation.
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