In 1997 Burton had helped develop a script for a remake of the classic 1963 science-fiction B-Film
'X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes', with Bryan Goluboff, screenwriter of 'The Basketball Diaries'.
The screenplay would re-interpret and update Roger Corman's film.. Using the story's themes
and ideas to further explore the ramifications and real-world consequences of having X-Ray vision,
and the Dream-turns-into-nightmare scenario this could pose on a person.
The original film followed a scientist intent on enhancing mankind's ocular ability,
the brilliant Dr. James Xavier played by Ray Milland, invents a formula that allows him to
see wavelengths of light outside the normal human spectrum. When his funding is suddenly threatened,
Xavier tests the formula on himself despite the protests of his colleague.
While the formula initially proves useful in a variety of minor tasks,
Xavier soon finds himself able to see things that no man was meant to see.
"X - The Man With X-Ray Eyes" was a project for Burton to direct for DreamWorks and Orion
Pictures. This then made it so that there were now three projects based on the premise
as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Brothers also had projects based on "X-Ray."
Sony held the rights to the short story and the title "Man With the X-Ray Eyes," written
by Edmond Hamilton - Sony had acquired the project several years ago for Burton,
when the studio was under the management of Peter Guber, Jon Peters and Mark Canton.
Warner Brothers, which was also finalizing a deal for Burton to direct Nicolas Cage in
"Superman Lives", had its own "X-Ray" project and claimed it also owned the rights to the
title. However the Warner project, scripted by J.J. Abrams, was called "Beyond Violet."
The deal was announced to the press by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, co-heads of
DreamWorks Pictures, and Len White, president and chief executive officer of Orion Pictures
and Metromedia Entertainment Group. The statement read...
"Tim Burton is one of the few truly visionary directors working in Hollywood today.
DreamWorks is absolutely thrilled to have him making a motion picture for us.
'X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes' stands out as one of Orion's crown jewels in our library. We
are delighted to be associated with DreamWorks and Tim Burton in this important remake.''
The film was set to be produced by Burton and Hollywood veteran,
Larry Franco, who has been associated with the director on two previous feature projects,
"Batman Returns," and "Mars Attacks!" The original Corman movie that Burton was
looking to revamp, stands alone as a great movie with a high-concept sci-fi storyline that has some
big ideas, the project would eventually stall as Burton would unknowingly enter
his own private hell developing 'Superman' and over the course of the following year the
director's enthusiasm would wane. Burton would say years later
of the 'X' project, that, ''... It's now like a seasonal
thing... Occasionally I revisit it because it's something that still interests me.''
It's a shame the project went nowhere, a real shame. When you hear the screenwriter speak of
his time working on the piece you can imagine how this remake could have been a great project
for Burton to get his hands on. Here's the writer Bryan Golobuff
speaking to Adam Bernstein and Doug Most. i have to talk about another thing that
you worked on another fascinating story i think was when you
worked uh with tim burton a few years ago
yeah i did the men the man with the x-ray eyes with tim burton
and i really liked what he and i came up with
um and what where as doug knows what we got caught up in was
the plan was he was gonna do super his superman movie and then he was gonna do
man with the x-ray eyes i'm telling you he was doing sketches he was i mean i
was he was in he was in like 1995 no it was later that
was like 97 97 what year was his superman
right around that time around that time and he
uh so he was going to superman then he was going to do this but
looking at his sketches for the film and i i was like this is going to be
a game changer i mean it's really going to be amazing and to talk to him about
what he wanted from the character which is
the mystery of how things work that was you know when you talk about an
animating spirit of a movie it's like you know his thing was you
look at a wall but inside that wall it termites and you
know that that this guy had the burden of seeing
below the surface right that he could look he could be
walking down the street and go he has a tumor and he's got
this and there's a gun in his pocket and there's a and you just caught the
the the fur of this artist i mean he was really like a beautiful dude you know
right and uh it's you know i'm not i'm not telling tales that's cool i mean he
was really heartbroken about what happened with superman and he
dropped out for a little bit and they the underlying rights to
two men with the extra eyes came up and they couldn't find him to renew them and
they lapsed and the movie never got made and that
one that one was i mean i like that i like the harder they come but that was a
real heartbreak because i think such a good script it was a good script
and would have been so
phantasmagoric and beautiful i mean there was one scene we had
where um he makes love with this girl for the first time since he has his
vision and he watches her body explode sort of from
inside [Music]
and um it was just he we just got into it and
and uh i only have good stuff about him he was loyal and cool and
well he's a major major artist and he was a cool dude he is a culture but i
mean when i when i met him