The most exciting rumor swirling around The Flash has officially been confirmed to us by director Andy Muschietti. Yep, Nicolas Cage will finally debut in the DC Universe as Superman, 25 years after his film ‘Superman Lives’ was cancelled.
“Nic was absolutely wonderful. Although the role was a cameo, he dove into it,” Muschietti tells William Mullally of Esquire Middle East.
The Flash, releasing June 15 in cinemas the Middle East, sees the titular character travelling across the multiverse, meeting alternate versions of DC’s most popular characters along the way, one of which is Cage’s Superman.
Muschietti recruited Cage for the role because of his life-long love for the performer.
“I dreamt all my life to work with him. I hope I can work with him again soon,” Muschetti continues.
While Cage is of course 25 years older than he would have been in the scrapped film, Cage took to the role as if no time had passed.
“He is a massive Superman fan. A comic book fanatic,” Muschetti continues.
Nicolas Cage’s love for Superman: A History
That’s putting the actor’s devotion to the character lightly. Cage’s son, born in 2005, is named Kal-El, Superman’s name on his home planet of Krypton. He also once owned perhaps the best remaining copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of the character, which he sold in 2011 for a then-record $2.1 million.
While Cage has lived out his love for comics on the screen in many other ways, playing Superman, the character he loves most, has always been a ‘what could have been’ situation for the Academy Award-winning legend. His standalone Superman film, to be directed by Tim Burton with a script by Kevin Smith, was nixed by the studio just before it went into production in 1998.
Cage had even tried on the suit, footage of which you can see below.
“That was the one character that was never really portrayed with any depth,” Burton lamented after the film’s cancellation in 1999. “I thought for the first time, with Nic, you could see a guy who you could see the change [from Clark Kent to Superman].”
Why ‘Superman Lives’ never happened
A feature-length documentary about the axed project, ‘The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? ‘ was released in 2015 to critical acclaim. Watch the full documentary here.
Cage spoke about his disappointment in the project not coming to fruition earlier this year.
“It was more of a 1980s Superman with like, the samurai black long hair. I thought it was going to be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there,” Cage said.
The actor even seemed to tease that the cameo might be coming at one point in talking about it, saying: “But you never know. I don’t mean to be cryptic Cage, but you never know!”
Nic also talked a bit about why he thinks the movie didn’t happen.
“They wanted Renny Harlin to do the movie. I sat down with Renny. I was doing another picture, he came to the trailer and we talked. I liked Renny… but I thought if I’m going to do this, it’s such a bullseye to hit,” Cage explained. “I said, this has to be Tim Burton. I called Tim and said, ‘Would you do this?’ Tim didn’t cast me, I cast Tim, and Tim said yes. I loved what he did with Michael [Keaton] and Batman, and I was a big fan.”
“I love ‘Mars Attacks.’ I thought ‘Mars Attacks’ was just a fantastic, groundbreaking movie. He’s a groundbreaker! But they were scared at the studio because of ‘Mars Attacks.’ Warner Brothers had lost a lot of money on the movie. These movies that are really weird, that challenge and break ground, they piss a lot of people off. I think they got cold feet. They’d spent a lot of money already building the sets and the costume and what have you.”
The Flash: Why the hype is deserved
While it’s disappointing that we never got that film, finally seeing the character on screen will surely be a thrill for fans when The Flash, which has been getting rave reviews in fan preview screenings, drops in cinemas next month.
For Muschietti, it was the experience of a lifetime.
“Everyday on that set was amazing. I had a dream cast and a dream crew. I am a very lucky man,” he tells us.
The director also had a great working relationship with his lead, Ezra Miller.
“Ezra and I were always on the same page regarding the character. We wanted to make Barry Allen and the Flash fully formed characters, with a broad range of emotions. Christina Hodson wrote script that we both loved, and Ezra and I molded the character together,” he continues.
If it wasn’t already, this is now officially the can’t-miss cinematic event of the year, especially as James Gunn continues to declare it one of his favorite films.
See the final trailer, which dropped earlier today, below.
Source : Esquireme
