We all remember the Flash movie starring Ezra Miller right?
You know, that long delayed Flashpoint adaptation that would do the multiverse before Marvel could start their Multiverse Saga? That then took so long that it rushed Marvel into rushing their multiverse story which meant it ended up half baked for years. Only for the Flash movie to botch the multiverse concept even more.
And the same Flash movie which people wondered if it would even release after star Ezra Miller was involved in a number of controversies where it sounded like he kinda went nuts, got himself tangled up with the police and there was some story floating around where his home sounded more like the beginnings of a cult?
Yeah that Flash movie!
Well, now lets talk about how they did the dirty to Nicholas Cage.
One of the most exciting things about the prospect of the Flash film was that it promised to jump dimensions and have cool cameos and some bigger appearances from actors playing characters they either hadn’t played in years, or as was the case of Nicholas Cage, had nearly played, but things fell apart.
We knew we were getting Michael Keaton back as Batman for the first time in thirty years. That was awesome. We also knew that Ben Affleck would be back as Batman as well. Everything else were rumours.
It was unclear if Henry Cavill or Gal Gadot would appear, or if we’d have other classic versions of characters return. One big rumour was that Grant Gustin, who played the Flash on the TV show Flash in the Arrowverse would appear. This made sense after Ezra Miller had a cameo in the TV multiverse version where Grant was the lead.
Well, Gustin didn’t happen. So that just left one big speculated rumour to help this movie live up to the hype and that was the promise that we would get Nicholas Cage finally on screen as Superman.
Tim Burton had been going to direct a Superman film in the 1990s and the script was worked on by Kevin Smith. For various reasons that project fell apart, and it then became something of legend as it had reached the point where there were Nicholas Cage was doing costume fittings and there were photos and videos of him in costume as Superman. The film was to be called Superman Lives, and the full collapse of the project is detailed on the documentary, The Death of Superman Lives.
The Flash movie would then be a chance to right the wrong and bring back Cage as Clark Kent. And they did. Kinda…
When fans saw the film they were horrified to see that Cage was in it for about one minute or less, that he said no dialogue and that his appearance appeared to be CGI. Fans were understandably upset at this, and as time would go on, it would seem Nicholas Cage was as well.
You see, it tuned out that Nicholas Cage didn’t just agree for his likeness to be recreated in CGI, but that he was actually on set, in costume playing the man of steel. So, if this is the case, why did they replace him with CGI?
Well, it seems their motive was actually to right another wrong of sorts, by realising something else from the cancelled Superman Lives movie, although something that was infamous in the public eye already.
Apparently when working on the script for Superman Lives, an executive at Warner Bros had insisted that Superman fight a giant mechanical spider in the movie. When Smith has told this story publicly, he mocks the idea. And this is exactly what Warner Bros decided to put into the Flash movie in the scene with Nicholas Cage’s Superman.
But here’s the catch. They didn’t tell him that this was their plan. So, could they include it if they did tell Cage that this is what his character would be doing and didn’t get him to film anything for this sequence? Simple, they completely replaced the live action Nicholas Cage with an entirely CGI version and then they could make this fake Nick Cage fight a giant mechanical spider.
Tim Burton would later express distain for the Flash movie and that it had taken his versions of Batman and Superman without consulting him and done a bad job with them.
For Nick Cage, I hope he got paid well, and although this wouldn’t give us what we deserved in terms of a Nicholas Cage Superman movie, at least Cage did finally go from a complete what if, to having a screen credit of playing Superman in a live action film…although actually, I’m sure this was an uncredited cameo. Oh well…
You can get loads more Movie and TV Show articles in the Movies section of the site, and don’t forget to check out all our pop culture videos and Geek Battle Podcast on the Geek Battle social channels below:
