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

The cult TV show Dark Shadows ran from 1966 until 1971.  I wasn’t even born when the odd, supernatural soap opera went off the air, so it wasn’t something I was familiar with until a few years ago when Tim Burton talked about doing a movie based on the show.  Frankly, the movie never really interested me since I had no connection whatsoever to the property, until I saw the first trailer.  It would have been easy for Burton to set the movie in the modern age, but, no, he had to go retro with a 1970s period piece.  And that alone interested me.  Not enough to see it in the theatre, mind you, but enough to spend $1 at one of the 3,000 Redbox machines within two blocks of my house.

Going into the movie blind, with only the vaguest notion of what the central premise was, I can’t say that my “intrigued” attitude grew to become affection.  I didn’t care about any of the characters, the comedy mostly fell flat for me, and the plot was less than inspiring.  Yet I felt compelled to finish the movie, just because it was such a bold experiment in movie-making, mostly due to the set and costume design.
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The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

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Blue Sky to produce Charlie Brown feature | Cartoon Brew
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Website Launched For ‘Monsters University,’ The College | /Film
This is awesome. I can't wait for Monsters University, and as a web designer I would have loved to work on this project. Pixar launched a fake website for the college Mike and Sully will be attending in the upcoming sequel. Heads up, you can actually order the merchandise.

I’ve always liked Tim Burton movies. I realize the beef a lot of people have with his films, but I have always enjoyed them. Although his style may be getting a bit predictable, he seems to have fun making them and it comes through on the screen. That can definitely be said about Alice in Wonderland.

It’s one of his most heavily-stylized movies to date, to the point where it makes you wonder why he didn’t just animate it. They went as far as enlarging the Queen’s head significantly, replacing Crispin Glover’s body with CG, and using mainly CG sets and background characters. Still, it gives the movie a unique (if cluttered) look.

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