Superman Lives is one of the great (or not-so-great) lost movies of Hollywood.  Back in the mid-90’s Tim Burton came onboard the project alongside star Nicolas Cage and screenwriter Kevin Smith.  They actually got pretty far along in development (you’ve no doubt seen Cage’s infamous photo in the costume) before the whole thing fell apart.  Now, filmmaker Jon Schnepp is attempting to brave the waters and figure out what happened with his upcoming documentary, The Death of Superman Lives; What Happened?

The trailer for the film was unveiled last night at the San Diego Comic-Con and is actually pretty great, featuring many of the key players (no Cage though) in the debacle. Hit the jump for the The Death of Superman Lives; What Happened trailer and to find out more on how this intriguing film can become a reality.

As you can see, Superman Lives was going to be an incredibly weird film.  It looks like it was intent on playing up the alien angle to an even greater degree than last year’s Man of Steel did (Russell Crowe and his dragons don’t have anything on the creature mockups we see here).  Tim Burton doesn't seem to be especially fond of this period in his career, while Kevin Smith is pretty much just being Kevin Smith.  I'm sad that this film never happened as it could have been one of those all-time amazingly entertaining disasters.

Schnepp has launched a FanBack campaign to help finish the project.  In his own words:

We are in the Post Production and Finishing Phase of this Feature Film. We need additional money to finish Editing, create Animations, and all Final Post Production Additions. My stretch goal remains making some of the Recreation Scenes that were never funded. Please help by donating to this Finishing Fundraiser for completing "The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?"