THE DEBACLE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN THE NEW SUPERMAN MOVIE: Disheartening rumors about the new SUPERMAN movie project have been swirling for months, but none more disheartening than the recent news that the entire project has been scrapped. The final nail in the coffin reportedly came when a soaring budget and general ineptitude on the part of producer JON PETERS and director TIM BURTON to decide on a script or even a plot caused the money men at WARNER BROTHERS to panic and ax the project. But don’t feel sorry for the would-be star NICOLAS CAGE who has now wasted a considerable amount of time preparing for a part he will apparently never play. The actor has a nifty “pay or play” deal which guaranteed him a massive paycheck whether the film was made or not. And now the big question in Hollywood is – “How much did NICOLAS CAGE get paid NOT to play Superman??” HARRY KNOWLES has pegged it at $17 million, but I heard $27 million (which, if it is true means that Cage should buy his agent a new house or something…). The true figure is probably somewhere in between, but either way the entire, tragic story of what could have been a good summer movie is a dark lesson in how the Hollywood machine can take a great idea and make it suck. For an exceptional insight into the twisted world of blockbuster production, check out screenwriter KEVIN SMITH‘s interview in this month’s CINESCAPE magazine. The cover story on the magazine is a behind the scenes look at the X-FILES movie, but the real conspiracy is unwoven in Smith’s candid and humorous unmasking of the massively bloated egos of Peters and Burton. Smith, the indie filmmaker responsible for the brilliant CLERKS, MALLRATS and CHASING AMY (nobody else liked it but I totally did), wrote the original script for the Superman revival movie and based the hero much more on the original comic strip. Smith is a well-known comic book fanatic and his involvement in the script gave many of us hope that the movie would redeem Superman from his CHRISTOPHER REEVE-era cheesiness and return him to the pantheon of great superheroes like BATMAN and SPIDERMAN. But, as Smith explains in the no-holds-barred story, that task became pretty much impossible once it became clear that Peters and Warner Brothers were much more concerned about the toy merchandising than the actual story. Especially since the movie has now been canned, this article is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the behind the scenes struggle that lead to its demise. My favorite Smith quote, in reference to Peters is, “I was thinking that this man is either the most progressive individual in films today or just a flat-out idiot. It is a real thin line.” Gotta love a writer who will speak his mind like that and is willing to call cash cow Tim Burton “kooky”. I am now an even more devoted Kevin Smith fan. I can’t wait to see his new flick DOGMA.

SPEAKING OF KEVIN SMITH AND DOGMA… I heard from a very well-placed source that DISNEY is getting very nervous about the reactions of the always vocal Catholic church over the content of DOGMA. Apparently the script is pretty outrageous and it takes plenty of pot shots at the idea of a “good Catholic upbringing.” The biggest pot shot of all of course being that ALANIS MORRISETTE plays the character of God. The film is being produced by MIRAMAX which has a distribution deal with Disney. Disney ran into similar troubles with the Catholic church when it released the Miramax movie PRIEST, about a gay Catholic Priest, on Good Friday. My source tells me that Disney is looking to avoid a similar outcry with Dogma and might refuse to release the movie in its current form. I can’t imagine the renegade Smith agreeing to censor himself, so this could either force Miramax to look for another distributor or could leave the film unseen like the LOLITA remake. I can’t imagine a film that stars BEN AFFLECK and MATT DAMON not being released in this day and age, but Disney certainly has more than enough clout to cause Smith and Miramax some serious delays.