That Almost Happened!

[zHellas]

EDIT: Though I like the "teenager afraid of his/her own powers" thing. Dunno why, but I do.

There's really only two outcomes you'd expect from a teenager discovering he's got super strength, be afraid of it making them different (in a time in your life where you want to fit in) or go nuts and smash shit up.

The kid that chooses to smash shit up will get killed.

He has super strength, not super regeneration or invulnerability.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I would have loved to see the Superman one!

Hell, I'd have loved to see any of them to be honest...the X-Men one sounds like something that could have been a deleted scene.

 

[itf cho]

Interesting stuff. How about a Part II to this article?

 

[Dacfu]

THAT, is a superman movie I would have watched! It sounds a bit cliche at times, but its better than what we got (IE all of superman)

 

[MooseHowl]

The Superman That Almost Was

[text snipped]

Gaah, that, what, I can't even... Agh! There's just so much idiocy there. How could anyone even come up with something that ridiculously generic and cliched?! The list of links to TVTropes alone would be longer than MovieBob's writeup! I barely know anything about Superman beyond the general stuff, but even I can tell that script is a terrible abomination.

I think I'd be busy lobotomizing myself right now if reading that hadn't already done the job for me.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

No offence, but when the original concept for the Superman movie makes the actual piece-of-shit homage movie look Oscar worthy, you need to rethink the writing process for these things...

 

[marscentral]

Wow, that Superman film sounds awful. What is it about Superman that attracts that kind of rubbish? I've never understood the mentality of these people who go to the trouble of getting the rights to something like Superman and then change just about everything about it! If you think your superhero/sci-fi story idea has merit, let it stand on it's own and become the next Superman. Superman himself is popular for a reason and his mythology is really well known because of that. People will come to a Superman film because they want to see that, so make a film based on that.

 

[Tonythion]

Man these are all really terrible ideas and even though a lot a people on here like the Termintor one I can't really get behind it because screws up the mythology big time and creates too many holes in the over all plot the previous three movies put together also I have a feeling that even if they pulled this off well it would still tick a lot of people off. I mean people have been wanting to see a termintor future war movie for a while so when they finally get one they expect to see john connor as the main character and to either A) see him actually defeating SkyNet and win the war or B) strengthen what has already been establish such as showing john sending his father back threw time. Personally I think if your going to do a twist on the whole termintor mythos It should be based on the fact that: Bascially John Connor and his greatest enemy Sky Net where both created threw the Time Paradox caused by the first movie. Maybe having a movie where John realizes the only way he can stop Sky Net is by preventing the first movie all together(Which would in cause him to be erased from existence) Would make for a much better plot twist then the one presented up above in the article. Especially since to some extent it's a bit cliched.

I liked the Terminator idea, then I read that..Now I want both ideas..because the first one would have been "OH SHIT WTF! That's awesome John Conner was a douche anyways!" Then the second one would have been more "I see, so that's what happens."

 

[foxlovingfreak]

Wow, that Superman film sounds awful. What is it about Superman that attracts that kind of rubbish? I've never understood the mentality of these people who go to the trouble of getting the rights to something like Superman and then change just about everything about it! If you think your superhero/sci-fi story idea has merit, let it stand on it's own and become the next Superman. Superman himself is popular for a reason and his mythology is really well known because of that. People will come to a Superman film because they want to see that, so make a film based on that.

I 100% agree with you on this maybe if more people did this we wouldn't have so many bad superman movies

There's a reason why the first 2 superman movies are still popular today people

 

[SilverHammerMan]

Ladies and gentlemen, why I hate J.J. Abrams!
Excellent article though.

 

[jokulhaups]

Wow, the Terminator idea actually sounds like the kind of awesome, tearing out chunks of your own hair, twist ending that would've made the otherwise bland T:Salvation an actually noteworthy movie. Beyond the Sean Connor thing, having skynet revealed to be a well intentioned extremist would've made for a much more compelling conflict.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

funny how things coulda gone for some productions

 

[Silent Eagle]

its a sad thing when stories have to be changed like that. its like having your script torn up in front of you.

 

[anaphysik]

Can't really speak to the other ones (except to say that the Superman one boggles the mind), but I actually really like the Spidey costume one; note that it would have necessarily been a larger part of the character than just a gag at the end: it evokes DIY culture vs. commercialization, even including marketing of hero worship, and image being a very different thing than reality. It actually sounds pretty dang neat. (I mean, sure, someone in Hollywood could probably botch the entire idea, but it's far from inherently bad.)

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

You missed Twilight:

"Even if you haven't seen the Twilight flicks or read the series, you probably still know that the plot revolves around the love story between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. But before Summit bought the rights to the books, the original script swapped the brooding romance for non-stop action. At the time, studios didn't think Bella's endless lovesickness would interest anyone. Instead, the studio wanted to turn Bella into a vampire in the first movie and kill off her father.

"We went shopping to every studio around, but everyone passed. Finally Summit said 'let's do it.' It was a total blessing.

"Before long, Twilight became an international bestseller and Summit realized they had a blockbuster on their hands. A new script was written to appeal to the rabid fan base.

"I mean, one of their drafts literally had a Korean FBI agent who was hunting and tracking vampires across the coast. There was SWAT in the trees and literally it was like, 'Red leader, read leader one,' and the vampires were picking them out of the woods.

"Just imagine if the original script had gone into production! The world might never have seen Taylor Lautner's abs, and Robert Pattinson would just be that guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter."

I mean, SERIOUSLY.
KOREAN FBI AGENTS TRACKING VAMPIRES?
WTF.

That would have been awesome...

 

[Kavonde]

If they had actually made that Superman movie, I would have died. I'm serious. My brain would have exploded in the theater. It would have been oozing out of my ears and eye sockets. I mean...what, the fuck was Abrams thinking? Jesus, just thinking about it is giving me a headache. I...gah...arrrrrgh.

...The Spider-Man and Terminator: Salvation things would have been cool, though. Actually, now I'm kinda disappointed that they didn't do the Spidey suit thing. That would've been brilliant.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

Good god, that Superman movie sounds terrible. That sort of thing might work for a one shot mini-series, but not a movie.

By the way, I read through that Ain't It Cool article on the Superman script, and I found some of these 2002-isms quite funny. "Daredevil looks like another homerun! Ang Lee's Hulk sounds awesome!" But the real kicker is among the fan reactions to the script:

"Give it to Shyamalon!" BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

That whole part about Skynet secretly keeping the human race alive actually makes sense. He saw the world as it was and said No. So he kills off most of the population in order to guide the carefully selected survivors down a path where there would be no hostility, racial hatreds or wars. Skynet is the hero and humans are just dicks.

Thought provoking stuff.

Also JJ's Superman? No, atleast he has his hands full with Star Trek 90210 now. You know, the plot for His Trek makes about as much sense as His Superman.

 

[sarahvait]

For those of you only poo pooing J.J. Abrams for that Superman shlock, don't forget that Warner Brothers read the script and LIKED it. And also

This particular script was supposedly written with major input from the studio, producers and then-signed director McG (later replaced by Brett Ratner before the project collapsed completely and Bryan Singer's Superman Returns was set up instead) though no one has ever really said what exactly came from who.

He had help with that madness. I don't know if I should be unsurprised or scared. @_@