J.J. Abrams says his Superman movie concept not so different from ‘Man of Steel’

It might surprise you to learn that before “Watchmen” director Zack Snyder was hired on to develop and direct the upcoming “Man of Steel,” J.J. Abrams himself took a crack at bringing Superman back to the big screen.

Or... it might not be so surprising. After all, Abrams has had franchise after geeky franchise offered up to him on a silver platter by the major studios, including “Mission: Impossible,” “Star Trek,” and now “Star Wars.” Why would DC’s flagging flagship of a superhero franchise be any different?

Way back in 2002, a fresh-off-“Felicity” Abrams wrote a screenplay called “Superman: Flyby” for Warner Bros. The film was to be a hard reboot of the franchise (unlike director Bryan Singer's subsequent "Superman Returns" which was a loose sequel to the original Superman movies), reintroducing Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and the rest. The plot involved a civil war on Superman's destroyed home planet of Krypton spilling over onto Earth, and the superhero having to overcome his own fear to save the day.

With the release of "Man of Steel" -- WB's latest attempt to bring a successful Superman movie to cinemas -- fast approaching, Empire Magazine took the opportunity to ask Abrams about the aborted "Flyby" project in a recent interview with the "Star Trek Into Darkness" director. The filmmaker believes his own approach to the iconic superhero is probably not that different from the approach that Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan are taking for "Man of Steel."

“The thing that I tried to emphasize in the story was that if the Kents found this boy, Kal-El, who had the power that he did, he would have most likely killed them both in short order,” Abrams said. “And the idea that these parents would see – if they were lucky to survive long enough – that they had to immediately begin teaching this kid to limit himself and to not be so fast, not be so strong, not be so powerful."

Abrams continued, "The result of that, psychologically, would be fear of oneself, self-doubt and being ashamed of what you were capable of. Extrapolating that to adulthood became a fascinating psychological profile of someone who was not pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent. Who had become that kind of a character who is not able or willing to accept who he was and what his destiny was."

You can see threads of that story angle in the "Man of Steel" teasers and trailers that have been released so far, but it's still unknown how far Snyder, Nolan, and company will push the self-limiting Superman approach. "I don’t know if that’s what Zack and Chris [Nolan] are doing," said Abrams, "but it looks like that’s part of the idea and I could not be more thrilled to see that movie. That to me was always the way to go.”

It's a real shame that Abrams's take on the character never made it to the screen. The "Superman: Flyby" project was before he became the major Hollywood force he is today, so he only wrote the script. Directors Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour") and McG ("Charlie's Angels") were both attached to the film during its development, but eventually left the project for different reasons. Abrams did reportedly lobby the studio for a chance to direct, but Warner Bros. went in a different direction with the project after scoring "X-Men" filmmaker Bryan Singer. Anyone who saw "Superman Returns" can tell you how that turned out. We're sure some studio exec is kicking himself to this day.

Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" flies into cinemas on July 14th.