Kinda tied up in our OT-ness here, cross posting, but feel compelled to expand on Hollywood executive meddling by jerks who just don't 'get it'. A lot of this I chopped up from wiki, I'm a little lagged to properly attribute.
This doofus, Jon Peters, who was originally a hairdresser who dated Barbra Streisand (claim to fame wig design), wanted to radically alter Supe's costume (unsubstantiated quote he said it looked "faggy"), not let him fly and make him fight a giant mechanical spider. These are the people making key decisions behind the scenes of film productions. The guy wanted 'Lex Luthor to have a space dog, because "Chewie's [Chewbacca] cuddly, man. You could make a toy out of him, so you've got to give me a dog."' The guy also wanted to cast Sean Penn for the role of Supes, based on his performance as a violent death row inmate in Dead Man Walking saying that Penn had the eyes of a "caged animal, a fucking killer".
From wiki: Art designer Sylvain Despretz claimed the art department was assigned to create something that had little or nothing to do with the Superman comic book, and also explained that Peters "would bring kids in, who would rate the drawings on the wall as if they were evaluating the toy possibilities. It was basically a toy show!"See link below for more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Peters#Peters_and_SupermanMore from wikipedia, hacked up by me:
Aspiring screenwriter/comic book fan Alex Ford was able to have a script of his (titled Superman: The Man of Steel) accepted at the studio's offices. On the experience, Ford quoted, "I can tell you they don't know much about comics. Their audience isn't you and me who pay $7.00. It's for the parents who spend $60 on toys and lunchboxes. It is a business, and what's more important, the $150 million at the box office or the $600 million in merchandising?
That's a lot to take in, sum it up for us, Reed. Okay, money and lunchboxes. Egotistical hairdressers who don't know Superman from Terminator calling the shots.
Just be glad some things never get to the screen.

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This was the world that I had created. I know what I have to do to fix it...to make things right. There's no problem that can't be solved.