As you may or may not know, in the late 90s, Tim Burton was hired to direct a new Superman movie. Entitled Superman Lives, the project was set to star Nicolas Cage as The Man of Steel. Warner Bros. reportedly spent over $50 million on the movie and then dumped it without ever shooting a single frame. Visual Effects artist Steve Johnson has now posted costume sculpts from the failed project. In Jake Rossen’s enjoyable book Superman vs. Hollywood, Kevin Smith (who was brought on to write Superman before Tim Burton was hired and has this fantastic anecdote about producer Jon Peters) joked, “Maybe [Burton] wanted to see Superman in all black. With scissors for hands.” It turns out that Smith wasn’t that far off. When Warner execs were reportedly horrified saw screen tests of Cage in the finished costume. After seeing these images, I think you’ll understand why.

Hit the jump to check out the images.

Images are from Steve Johnson’s Facebook page via CBM. And for a comprehensive explanation of how Superman Lives died, I once again highly recommend picking up Superman vs. Hollywood, which is a fantastic behind-the-scenes history of Superman’s TV and film adaptations.