Image Of Nicolas Cage Dressed As Superman Surfaces Online [Photo]

Once upon a time, Nicolas Cage and director Tim Burton joined forces to bring the Man of Steel to the big screen. Although Superman Lives never arrived in theaters, the project actually made some headway before the proverbial plug was pulled.

According to Slash Film, the first known picture of Nicolas Cage actually wearing the a Superman outfit has surfaced online.

The image shows the prolific actor being outfitted in the costume. The accompanying photos shows him standing awkwardly in front of the camera. Judging from the image, it would appear the original design was inspired heavily by Burton’s Batman design.

Roughly three years ago, production photos of Burton’s redesigned Superman suit found their way onto the internet. The suit was certainly unique in its design, though it seems to stray pretty far from the what fans had come to expect from their hero.

Video of the re-designed costume revealed that the suit would have featured an array of lights that were woven into the design. Roughly three minutes of test footage was uploaded to YouTube by Steve Johnson FX in December of 2010.

Giant Freakin Robot reports that a Kickstarter campaign has been launched to fund a documentary about Superman Lives. The film would explore what happened behind-the-scenes of Tim Burton’s Superman project.

The documentary is being spearheaded by Jon Schnepp, an artist who has worked on such animated series as Metalocalypse and Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

A trailer for Schnepp’s proposed project lies below.

Superman Lives has become the stuff of cinematic legend, so the image of Nicolas Cage sporting the outfit from Tim Burton’s cancelled production is a pretty big deal to fans. You can take a look at Nicolas Cage as Superman below.

Are you a fan of Nicolas Cage? Do you think he would have been right as Superman?