Yeah, I've read one of Smith's drafts...he definitely deserves credit for trying to rein in Peters' madness and trying to make the intended film more respectful to Superman and DC lore - the Snare Beast being from Thanagar (Hawkman's homeworld), an early scene of Superman fighting Deadshot and Black Manta in Corto Maltese, an S:TAS-influenced opening on Krypton with Brainiac being responsible for Krypton's destruction, Brainiac first being led to Earth after receiving a transmission from Luthor that is explicitly mentioned in the script as coming from "Sector 2814" a la Green Lantern - but in the end you could tell the Hairdresser From The Streets had too swollen an influence over it for it to work cohesively.
And of course, WB would only be too happy to kick Smith to the curb in favor of another Man Who Gave Them Batman *cha-ching*$$$*, despite the fact that Tim Burton has gone on record taking a lot of pride in the fact that he's never read comic books; in fact, he personally instructed all those designers to stay as far away from the comics as possible, and they basically sucked up to him at every turn. I know I probably shouldn't, but I get a lot of amusement out of the fact that, beginning with Superman III, Warner Brothers did everything conceivable to disavow the source material from which the character first emerged and became the icon that he is, and the end result of their conviction to straying from Superman's roots has been failed sequels and a whole mess of aborted films. And I give the brunt of the blame to WB itself: Ilya Salkind, for as much a jerk as he's been made out to be (and, I'm sure, pretty justly), at least TRIED to give us Brainiac for "Superman III", instead of a watered-down generic supercomputer designed on table napkins by a sorely-misplaced comedian (who, BTW, was only cast in the film because someone at WB saw him gushing about the first two Superman movies on "The Tonight Show"), and WB shot him down. He tried again for "Supergirl" and they nixed it again.
Furthermore, the fact that the studio has announced its intentions to make future DC movies "as dark as the characters will allow" to me signals that things aren't going to get much better for the Superman franchise anytime soon. The lackluster performance of "Superman Returns" has probably convinced the execs that Peters may have been right all along, and that an extreme-to-the-point-of-mutilation revamp may be in order; certainly the way he turned right around and kissed up about Singer's sequel to Donner's film after so many years of pushing bizarre pitches (including Abrams' where Krypton doesn't blow up and Lex is Kryptonian) - and indeed earlier inferring to Smith that the Donner film was basically complete crap - is a little hard to accept as being a sincere change of heart.
Jon Peters needs some kind of serious meds. Watch An Evening With Kevin Smith and Kevin talks about Jon's madness in detail. IE he wanted Superman to fight a giant robot spider for no reason whatsoever. Guess what that giant robot spider showed up in Wild Wild West on which Jon Peters was a producer.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
Man, when are we gonna get a Superman film like the original?
Oh right, never because movie execs are all jumping aboard The Dark Knights "Dark and Gritty" style.
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