'SUPERMAN: THE NEW MOVIE was in development back in the late 1980's and early 1990's after the Salkinds regained the film rights to Superman from Cannon Pictures (who made Superman IV). The Salkinds commissioned Cary Bates (who was Executive Story Consultant on the 'Superboy' TV series) and Mark Jones to write the screenplay for the movie. The plot involved Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk and would star Gerard Christopher. Rumor had it that this film would be shot in Florida. Unfortunately, they weren't able to start principle photography prior to the deadline where the film rights would revert back to Warner Bros., which they did.

Gerard Christopher proved he had audience appeal. The title of the new Superman film became 'Superman: The New Movie', scheduled for release in Christmas 1991. It probably would have featured the same elements as the 'Superman V' Cary Bates script, including a parallel universe, the shrunken Kryptonian city of Kandor, and Superman's battle against Brainiac! Though, this has not been confirmed. It was to have been budgeted at around $35-$40 million, an expensive film even at that time, and by March 1993 it was under Salkind's production banner as "Great Krypton Productions". It would have begun filming that summer for a mid-1994 release. This film would start the film series all over again. Movie magazines and Sci-Fi publications like STARLOG only hinted at its' development, and further information on it is scarce to non-existent. Recall that with flops like SUPERGIRL, SUPERMAN IV and the cancelled cartoon show, Superman was probably a risky undertaking in the first place, despite the apparently growing interest in the 'Superboy' TV show. Eventually, 'Superman: The New Movie' disappeared into oblivion and Jon Peters stepped in to begin work on 'Superman Reborn/Lives'.

'Superman: The New Movie' wasn't the first time a Superboy actor was said to possibly star in a Superman/Boy movie. In 1989, probably due to the success of both the first 'Batman' film and the climbing ratings of the 'Superboy' series, it was said there had been talks of a "Superman" film project by the Salkinds unformly titled (by the fans) as 'Young Superman'. It would have starred the first Superboy star John Haymes Newton (as very briefly mentioned in an interview by John Haymes Newton himself, as it being a strong possibility) but information on this is scarce, and no longer heard of when he was replaced on the series by Gerard Christopher. Virtually nothing is known about the story to this (possible) Newton starring film, or for that matter, about 'Superman: The New Movie' (the screenplay itself is impossible to attain, to nearly non-existent), other than, much of what was done in the second season of 'Superboy' was done intentionally to tie 'Superman: The New Movie' with the TV series (it could very well have been that the briefly mentioned 'Young Superman' Newton speaks of was the beginnings of the 'Superman: The New Movie' idea).