The role Brendan Fraser will always wish he got to play: “It was Shakespeare in space”
In the long history of Hollywood comebacks, few have felt as cathartic as Brendan Fraser‘s, who, after years in isolation following a sexual assault by a high-ranking executive, burst back onto the scene in the late 2010s.
Then, in 2022, he starred as a morbidly obese man in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, a performance that earned him the best reviews of his career and ultimately resulted in a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar win, making for one of the most feel-good victories in Academy history.
Prior to this glorious return, the Canadian was best known for his action roles, starring as Rick O’Connell in The Mummy franchise, a character he’ll be reprising in the near future, and appeared in various other projects that let him play the hero, but also missed out on the chance to play the most heroic character of all time.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, the star revealed that he had once been in the running to play Superman. He had tested for the part for JJ Abrams, who was working on a reboot of DC’s flagship superhero in the mid-2000s, and Fraser had high hopes for the project, as he explained, he was particularly enraptured with the way it was written.
“I loved that screenplay,” he said, “They let me read it. They locked me in an empty office in some studio lot; I signed an NDA. It was printed black on crimson paper, so you couldn’t photocopy it or sneak it out the door inconspicuously. I mean, it was Shakespeare in space. It was a really good screenplay.”
Abrams’ version of Superman is one of the many, many unproduced scripts written for Krypton’s finest, with his take on the story, known as either Superman: Man of Steel or Superman: Flyby, depending on who you ask, emerged in 2002. It would have centred Kal-El’s feud with his evil uncle, Kata-Zor, with the dramatic high point of the movie coming with the death of Superman. However, in the Kryptonian afterlife, he would reunite with his father, Jor-El, and find his way back to life, after which he would then stop an invading Kryptonian force from destroying the Earth, before flying back to his home planet in a spaceship.
Fraser was one of a few actors considered to lead this project, alongside Paul Walker, Jude Law, and Josh Hartnett, but unfortunately, none of them would get the chance to step into the famous blue suit as Flyby quickly entered development hell.
A number of actors, directors, and other key figures signed on and were quickly removed from the movie over the following few years, and ultimately, the project in its original form was abandoned entirely. Some elements of the production would result in the 2006 film, Superman Returns, in which Brandon Routh played the title character, and Fraser claims that he eventually lost the part due to “studio politics”.
Looking back at how Routh’s career turned out in the wake of Superman Returns, Fraser appears to have dodged a speeding bullet. With the character in one of the strongest positions it’s ever been in, maybe there’s a role for him in a future instalment of James Gunn’s take on the DC Universe.
