Two superhero films at different ends of the budget spectrum: when Batman and Superman meet Billy Zane’s The Phantom…
Superhero movies? Oh, go on then. A pair of very different projects take centre stage here, at different ends of the budget spectrum.
2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was a pivotal movie for Warner Bros, and a big screen showdown that it’d first attempted nearly 20 years previously. This time, director Zack Snyder was effectively charged with leading the fightback against Marvel and its cinematic universe – and his Batman/Superman showdown would have plenty of ramifications.
In the case of 1996’s The Phantom, here was a lower budget superhero outing, where the price was chopped just weeks ahead of filming. Joe Dante had originally been set to direct, and Simon Wincer would step in. But 10 days away from release, the boss of Paramount was very aware few people had heard of the movie…
Stories of both are told in this episode.
