“He stopped playing it”: the Jersey nightclub that left Henry Cavill mortified
You all remember that Superman film starring Henry Cavill, the one intended to reboot the character for a modern audience. In it, Kal-El arrives on Earth after his father is betrayed on Krypton, before eventually facing off against his own cousin. It was even set to be directed by McG.
Yes, we’re not talking about Man of Steel but the proposed Superman film from the early 2000s, which went by a number of names, including Superman: Flyby or, interestingly, Superman: Man of Steel. The project had a script written by JJ Abrams, and signed the great Christopher Reeve as a creative consultant, but unfortunately, for a number of confusing, bullshit Hollywood reasons, the movie fell apart.
Along with Jude Law, Brendan Fraser, and others, Cavill was one of the frontrunners to play the legendary DC mascot at a time when he was in his early 20s, splitting his time between London and his parents’ home on the island of Jersey. To pay the bills in between gigs, he worked in a nightclub on the island called Liquid, and he must have been quite friendly with his colleagues, as he let slip just how close he was to donning the famous red underwear.
During an interview with GQ in 2013, Cavill revealed that somebody at Liquid must have known about Flyby, saying, “When they opened the dance floor section, the DJ always played the Superman music”, which, while clearly done in good faith, must have stung quite a bit when he didn’t actually get the part. In Cavill’s own words, “He stopped playing it after that”.
The thing that really sank Cavill’s chances was McG removing himself from the project, as once the director had been replaced by Bryan Singer, the British hunk was out the door.
His choice was Brandon Routh, possibly because he could have been Reeve’s lovechild, and together, the pair made the 2006 film Superman Returns, but given that the film turned out to be a complete mess that once again left the Superman character completely adrift, Cavill might just have dodged a bullet.
The world’s sexiest Warhammer 40,000 player then spent the next few years getting cucked by Robert Pattinson, being in contention to play both Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Edward Cullen in Twilight, with Stephanie Meyer even referring to him as the “perfect” choice for the latter.
Instead, he lost out to R-Patz on both occasions, but things would eventually work in the end when he finally got to play Clark Kent in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, and Amy Adams, who had also auditioned for Superman: Flyby, joined him as Lois Lane.
I know what you’re all thinking, though, which is what happened to Liquid? Unfortunately, after just eight years in operation, the club closed down in 2010, possibly because one of its most handsome members of staff moved to Hollywood to be in movies, or due to their DJ only ever playing movie themes.
