Everyone knows one of the roles actor and comic-book fan Nicolas Cage coveted most in his career is Superman. He very nearly had a chance to wear the cape back in the late 1990s with "Superman Lives," a film that was announced but never produced. Instead, he had to settle for naming his son "Kal-El" (Superman's birth name) in 2005.
We may never have gotten the pleasure of seeing Cage fly around in a Tim Burton-directed superhero epic, but there are still existing remnants from the movie. Of recent note is some freshly emerged test footage showing Cage trying out a shiny, skin-tight Superman costume in preparation for the role.
Cage's test gear is all blue and lacks the Superman chest logo. The short video features Tim Burton asking Cage about his movement abilities as the actor takes a few test punches into the air. Cage responds with, "You were saying it'll feel a little looser the more I wear it?" The costume looks like it was applied with a vacuum sealer.
It's notable that the 1997 costume ditched the red undies found on earlier Superman suits. That trend continued and can be seen in the most recent film version of the outfit worn by actor Henry Cavill in 2013's "Man of Steel" and the upcoming-in-2016 "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."
The test footage comes via the 2015 documentary "The Death of 'Superman Lives': What Happened?" The film was funded on Kickstarter and focuses on why the Cage version of the famous superhero never made it onto the big screen. The documentary will be released on July 9, much to the delight of people who can't get enough of Nicolas Cage spandexed into a shimmering super-suit.
(Via Mental Floss)