The producers owed 50 million to a French bank "They loaned out to studios all the time. If Superman III failed, we were finished." The debts accrued from making Donner's Superman and Superman II meant that a third instalment was inevitable. Indeed, Christopher Reeve had renegotiated a two picture deal before Lester's Superman II had even started shooting.

"We had to convince Lester to do it, but it was much easier to get him to do this than Superman II."

Ilya produced an 8 page treatment for the third entry, which introduced several new characters: Lana, Supergirl, Brainaic and Mister Mxyzptlk. The film's potential, in terms of size, could have eclipsed what the audience had seen in the previous two pictures.
"I read the comments on the message board [supermanii.com/forum]; the fans must understand that it was a jot of an idea. I still needed to check with DC comics, which I hadn't. They would come in and tell us what we could do, what needed to be cut etc. Cary Bates and Jeannette of DC comics knew the characters inside out. When Cary came on to Superboy, he transformed it. He's a very good bouncer, he has these great ideas that he bounces off."

Speaking of Cary Bates, Ilya and Cary also tried to bring Silver Blade to television.

"Cary Bates wrote 12 issues of Silver Blade. In 1995, I went to Warners to get permission to make it for television. Warners told me to go ahead and develop it. I didn't because it was complex to start from scratch. So I went to DC and told them I wanted to buy the rights. They told me to go to Warner Television but they didn't want to do it and wouldn't sell me the rights [laughs]."

In the first two films, Superman's adventures were concentrated on Earth, but Ilya was searching into the cosmic realms for number three, "We were trying to expand Superman's alien side. Mister Mxyzptlk would've been interesting; he would've added some humour. We wouldn't laugh at him but with him."
Fans have questioned Superman's relationship with Supergirl in the treatment and even I, not fluent in the Superman universe, scoffed at the hints of incest, "Fans think I don't know much about Superman, and I didn't when I started looking at the character [in 1973], but over the five years I read everything I could get on my hands on, including the encyclopaedias. I know about the different dimensions; in one dimension Superman and Supergirl are cousins, in the other they are not. All the powers were approved by DC, and those new powers were featured in the comics."

So it was a germ of an idea?

"Yes, we wanted to show that we were going to do something bigger. Don't tell me that Mxyzptlk creating a puzzle of the world isn't big. Think about it. I mean, I don't how we would have done it, and we'd have to talk with the art director, special effects guys and DC, to see how could be done. Now, of course, it'd be easy, in CGi."

What about Brainiac?

"Well, he might have been alien and then transformed into a man. We don't know what would've happened. It was in the early stages."

Does Ilya think that the fans were too harsh in their judgement of the treatment?

"Some don't understand the business. We always start with a base and over, say, 13 drafts get to a finished version. DC had to get involved. It was just to see what the possibilities were."

The film, as Ilya had imagined it, featured no slapstick, but when Richard Pryor informed the public that he wanted to do a Superman picture, it was goodnight cosmos and hello jobcentre.

"Terry Semel didn't like pure Sci-Fi so he sent his henchman, Bob Shapiro, head of production at the time, and they fell in love with Pryor and my idea was diluted. Everyone was against me; they preferred a social, rather than a cosmic, movie. I love Pryor but I wasn't keen on him. If I was in control of the picture, Pryor's part would have been smaller."

Read Ilya's original treatment of Superman III here.

But one notable idea in Ilya's outline remained, "Lester wanted Superman vs Superman. The schizophrenic was me. I was battling with myself. Good Ilya beating shit-faced Ilya. My personality split and the good Ilya won out."

I mentioned that I had always loved the Jor-El dialogue "The virtuous spirit has no need for thanks or approval... Only the certain conviction that what has been done is right..."

"Mankiewicz or Newmans?" asked Ilya.

"That's Mankiewicz." I replied.

"I found my conviction, then I really changed. I’ll tell you a story about Supergirl. Peter Gallagher and Hart Bochner tested for Ethan. I chose Hart. I messed up. I think 10 years ago Peter was at a screening. I went up to him and told him, ‘Do you remember that screen test in New York?’ He remembered. I told him that I should have chosen him over Hart. That's me, that's Ilya now. He was in tears because I confessed my fuck up. I used to take things personally before, but now I just walk away and don't get involved."

With casting underway, Frank Langella was the number one choice for the role of tycoon, Ross Webster, "I pushed hard for Frank, but Lester wouldn't do the picture if he was cast. I can't remember why he didn't want him, but if he was cast, he would have pushed Pryor back. We looked at other actors, including Alan Rickman. In the end we finally agreed on Robert Vaughn. He's good, but imagine the film with Frank Langella. He commands more screen time than Pryor."

What about the stories that Margot Kidder’s role in III was downsized as punishment for her vocal criticisms of the Salkinds during the promotion of Superman II? "I said ‘Let’s use Lana.’ I saw Annette in Cat People and cast her in the role. We had done it all with Lois. The way it ended with Lois Lane at the end of II was a very moving scene. Everybody agreed to it."

"We don't see the romantic side of Lester very often."

"Have you seen Petuila? Probably Lester's best film and you see that side of him in that movie."

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