In the mid 2000s, Charlie’s Angels director McG was once this close to helming a Superman reboot for Warner Bros., but one specific phobia ended up costing him the job outright. So what proved to be McG’s personal dose of Kryptonite?
Flying.
The film, ironically titled Superman: Flyby and based on a script by J.J. Abrams, was scheduled to shoot in Australia — a bit of an issue considering McG’s disposition for remaining grounded. “I tried to tell [then-Warner Bros.’ execs] Alan Horn and Barry Meyer at the time, ‘Hey guys, I’m really afraid to fly,’” McG recalled in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And they were like, ‘Come on! You’re McG. You’ll be fine.’”
“It was very humiliating and I got thrown off the movie that day,” McG said, detailing how the flight had proven too much to handle given his aviophobia.
The story, however, does contain a silver lining.
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“It just sort of resulted in my going to see two ladies who specialize in this sort of thing at UCLA,” the filmmaker continued. “I slowly put one foot in front of the other and I’ve now been around the world many, many times and fly all over the place and try to never go two weeks without getting on a plane.”
Superman: Flyby obviously had worse luck getting off the ground, with the studio instead deciding to move forward with Bryan Singer’s Superman: Returns.