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Nic Cage: "Tim Burton didn't cast me as Superman, I cast him"

Cage has talked about the cancelled movie and its unconventional hiring situation.

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The strange image of Nicolas Cage in a Superman costume has been circulating online for a while, and for those who have seen the documentary The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? is probably already familiar with what happened to Tim Burton's 1998 Superman project (which never came to fruition). In an interview with Rolling Stone, however, Nicolas Cage wanted to clarify that it wasn't Tim Burton who cast him in the role, rather, it was the opposite. This is what the The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent-acting star had to say about the matter:

"What I want to go on record with is: Tim Burton did not cast me. I cast Tim Burton. They wanted [Die Hard 2/Cliffhanger director] Renny Harlin, and he's a nice guy and perfectly capable. But for me, the vision I had for Kal-El was more of a Tim Burton-style presentation universe.

I was a big fan of Mars Attacks! The studio was worried about Mars Attacks! But they hired Tim per my request, and then they shut the whole thing down. That's always been both a positive and a negative to me. It's a positive in that it left the character, and what Tim and I might have gotten up to, in the realm of imagination — which is always more powerful than that is concrete. And a negative in that I think it would have been special. Is there a chance? Who knows. I don't know. [Laughs.] To answer your question, I don't know."

Production was shut down when Mars Attacks! flopped and it's probably unlikely the project will be revived again with Burton directing, but one can always hope. Would you have wanted to see this Superman movie if it ever came to fruition?

Nic Cage: "Tim Burton didn't cast me as Superman, I cast him"


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