It seems every few months a batch of concept artwork emerges from one of the many failed Superman
productions, and every time we marvel (no pun intended) at how weird
and poorly-judged they seem. These pictures do give us insight into the
headspace of any given production of course, but I think we often forget
that concept sketches for a film of that scale are generated by the
thousands, and often the goal is to come up with as radical an idea as
possible so that novel elements can be cherry-picked, refined, and toned
town. That said, Burton’s team got pretty far along with some
exceedingly bizarre and unorthodox concepts, so some of this stuff might
be more damning/revealing than I give it credit for.
In these concept pieces [click to enlarge] from Superman Returns and Superman: Flyby
(as Abrams ditched script was called) we can see ideas for a more
organic look (with embedded yellow gems, instead of a belt- which I kind
of like) and an approach that reads to me as sort of…
regal. There is also a sketch of what looks like Doomsday,
that was apparently considered for Superman Returns, a villain I never caught any mention of from that project.
If
there is any topic at all that generates fan discussion, it tends to be
superhero costume design, so I thought I would share these with you.
They come Steven Johnson’s Facebook Page (which you can find and “like” here). Johnson is the same gentleman who revealed those silly Burton Superman
costume test photos, including the one to the left. His FB page is
filled with concept and behind-the-scenes looks at a number of
productions aside from Superman, so it’s worth taking a look.
10 comments
The first "Flyby" one with the three yellow gems in the waist FTW. VERY cool.
Yup, I'm with ya Jimmy J. It looks like what an alien would wear.
Man, you guys must read Slashfilm all day…They almost always have the exact same story before it is published on Chud…usually a day before. At least you guys have lists or else, why bother.
Those yellow gems look like a hernia.
Random yellow orbs on your hips = WTF? It's not like the costume is supposed to be an ALIEN costume, like the black Spider-Man suit. It's just a damn costume sewn together here on Earth. Why it would be so illogical?
Don't lie to me boy, you know, YOU KNOW….you intended that pun.
What I don't think I've seen anyone mention yet is that while completely ridiculous, the silver/blue shiny Burton stuff could have been based on the electric suit that Superman had from early 1997 until mid-1998 when his powers were all weird before bombing horribly and never being spoken of again. It was around that time that Burton was working on the movie, right? I don't think Warner Bros. would have gone for something so "Flavor of the Month" (although there WAS that Shaq "Steel" movie that somehow got made), but it certainly would be some sort of legitimate reason for WHY it looked so fucking stupid and how maybe Tim Burton isn't quite AS crazy or as we thought…at least when it comes to Superman's look.
@PlanB actually in one of the drafts of the screenplay Superman is very weak after being brought back to life by the Erdaicator so he constructs a battle-suit out of Eradicator's body so he'll have some superpowers until he recovers. That is likely what the shiny suit was, or possibly the suit the Eradaicator would wear himself.
@Larry—I know in the comic, when he came back from the dead, it was a black suit with the logo, so it was probably along those lines storywise, but those pictures of the blue/silver thing do look very much like the craptastic suit I mentioned before (the logo especially), so perhaps the movie version was to draw inspiration from both. Burton's film also would have been following in the wake of "Batman and Robin", a movie where WB told Schumacher to make everything look like it could be a toy. Ever listened for the commentary on that movie? Interesting stuff. Not worth blinding yourself by exposing your eyes to the movie itself though.
@#3: nobody likes a know-it-all. It ain't a "who posts it first" contest, douchebag. Get ball cancer and die.
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