Was 'Hook' Williams' or Speilberg's answer to Superman?

[crazy_asian_man]

There was an interview YEARS ago that I tried to lookup- where it was either Robin Williams or Speilberg who said that "Hook" was their version of a superhero film.

Williams was best friends with Reeve and did see his success as Superman. Speilberg originally wanted to direct Superman, but the Salkinds felt he was too inexperienced before "Jaws" came out.

It's interesting to read that "Hook" was going to be a musical, but that Speilberg yanked out the songs at the last minute.

I haven't seen "Hook" in a long time, but remember it was a bit of a slog until the last 5-10 minutes.

I am curious if anyone here felt any 'Superman' vibes in viewing it?

[atp]

No Superman vibes.

It was crap. Boring and depressing, and it looked cheap too.

It's correctly considered to be one of Spielberg's failures

[Metallo]

Answer to Superman? I don’t think so. I think Spielberg was going for the pure fantasy aspect since that was his trade. Maybe Williams saw it that way because he was a fan of that stuff. I think at best you could say Hook was attempt to try another broad literary fantasy character on the screen.

I always thought Hollywood grouped stuff like Superman, Popeye, Flash Gordon, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Conan, D!ck Tracy, etc. into the same category before they truly recognized comic book superheroes as their own thing. Before that they tried to replicate the success of Superman and Batman with charters from pulps, strips, and novels like they were one and the same even though some were more modern and had their own appeal.

Hook is a flawed film but there’s enough in there for me to like it.

[crazy_asian_man]

If it weren’t for Donner’s stm and the Rousso brothers (both of which also had extensive tv work before doing movies)- I would wonder more how a Speilberg superhero film would look like.

It still would still be cool (imagine if WB approached Spielberg for the reboot)- but fortunately there’s been enough high quality superhero films I don’t wonder THAT much...