TRIVIA

This film took 5 years to plan and bring to the screen. Alexander Salkind acquired the screen rights to the character in 1973 while making his "Three Musketeers" movies.

The following excerpt is from "Man of Two Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction and Comics", the autobiography of Julius Schwartz, the editor of the Superman line of comic books at DC Comics from 1970-1986.
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When Alexander (the father) and Ilya (the son) Salkind decided to do the Superman movie, they came to DC and talked to me about the project. Ilya asked me who I thought would do good job on the screenplay. My first choice was my old friend Leigh Brackett.
Ilya didn't recognize the name and asked who he has, and I had to explain that she had scripted numerous John Wayne films as well as The Big Sleep, etc. etc., and that she also was a noted science-fiction writer and her husband, Ed Hamilton, too, was a noted science-fiction author who also knew comics (as well as a former Superman writer).

Originally Ilya was interested but quickly dismissed her when he found out that she was in California since he wanted someone who was in the New York area so they could get down to work right away. (Leigh, as her luck would have it, would soon be busy on a little film called The Empire Strikes Back for another enthusiastic filmmaker, by the name of George Lucas.)

I then suggested Alfred Bester and ran down his credits with Ilya, who asked him to do a brief treatment for the movie. Ilya got in touch with Alfie's agent, Lurton Blassingham, and negotiated a deal for more money than Alfie had ever been paid for a single job in his entire life of writing. An enthusiastic Ilya was quite pleased with himself andd reported back to his father, Alexander, and told him that he had signed up a noted SF writer to do the screenplay. Alexander didn't recognize Alfie's name and scoffed, saying that it wouldn't work out because they needed a top-notch writer for the job. One whose name meant big bestselling success. A celebrated bestseller!

So they wound up paying Alfie a kill fee and signed up Mario Puzo, the bestselling author of The Godfather, to do the job. (They were able to pay Puzo as much as they did because they decided to go with an unknown in the part of Superman, a young actor by the name of Christopher Reeve.) As a result, they sent Puzo to meet with me, I briefed him on the character, gave him the comics we were doing, and off he went and wrote the screenplay.

Weeks later, the screenplay was delivered to the Salkinds and they were horrified.

Since when was Clark Kent a television reporter? That simply wouldn't do! (They backed up their opinion with a man-on-the-street poll that asked people to identify who Clark Kent was; almost everyone polled answered: a reporter for the Daily Planet. So much for his sojourn as a television reporter.)

The script was changed, and Clark was sent back behind his old newsroom typewriter at the Daily Planet. Among the scenes that were dropped from the final screenplay, one dealt with his date with Lois, where he realized that he had neglected to bring any wine for dinner, and he quickly scanned the world with his telescopic vision for a solution to his problem, saw that the Queen of England was just about to launch a ship with a bottle of champagne, and quickly zoomed across the ocean to England, snatching the bottle out of Her Highness's hands before it smashed against the ship's hull, and delivered it to Lois.

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Guy Hamilton dropped out when production moved from Rome to England; he was a tax exile.

Lee Quigley who played baby Kal-El in SUPERMAN died from sniffing a aerosol can in March 1991. Click Here for the newscutting.

Steven Spielberg really wanted to do SUPERMAN and was offered a chance to direct, but the Salkinds balked at his asking salary, and wanted to wait and see his "his fish movie" that he just directed would do at the box office. After JAWS opened to monumental grosses, Spielberg signed up with Columbia Picture and was already at work on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS before the producers could do anything.

Mario Puzo delivered 2 script drafts by October 75. Further revised by David and Leslie Newman.

Alex Salkind saw The Omen and contact Dick Donner. Donner declined the offer after reading the screenplay. It was a novel!
After being contacted again, he insisted that he would come to Paris only if he can revise the script with his friend, Tom Mankiewicz. Salkind first balked, then eventually agreed.

Production then moved to England and utilised Pinewood and Shepperton studios.

Over 1000 people involved, 11 separate units shot the film

1,250,000 million feet of film used to shoot over 18months. 12,000 feet became the actual finished product.

Puzo was given the story credit. Ironically, Puzo's story was amazingly faithful to the comics using names like Jax-Ur, Flora and so forth, but was deemed too campy. However, Puzo's name in the credits would help the project's "respectability" (remember, this was a period of time when people in Hollywood were still scoffing at the idea of a big budget superhero movie) One of the Salkinds' early choices for scriptwriter on the film was indeed Mario Puzo because of the success of "The Godfather", and his intelligent, literate storytelling brought about that clout and respectability that made him successful during the 70's. His two draft scripts for "Superman" were extremely faithful to the comics of the 70's, including the fact that everyone on Krypton wore a big "S" on their clothes. But after two script drafts he felt drained and wanted to pursue other projects at the time. Much of the Puzo script survived into the rewrites and final filmed version. One word why the first film remains successful to this day - according to Richard Donner and screenwriter/creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz verisimilitude.

While they were still considering the actor who would become Superman, they turned their attention to who would play Jor-El. Everyone agreed that only Marlon Brando would bring that sense of respectability to the project.

Marlon Brando got paid 3.75 million to play Jor-El for 2 pictures. That's 27,000 dollars an hour.

Gene Hackman got 2 million to play Lex Luthor.

Gene wanted to play Lex with a moustache, but eventually was tricked into removing it by Donner. The story - Donner wore a tosh and told Hackman that he would shave his off if he did it too. He agreed, so Hackman went first. Then it was Dick's turn, he simply removed his by hand. He was wearing a fake one. Hackman's veins were throbbing!!!

Shirley MacLaine was one of the women in the running to play Lois Lane!

Superman started shooting before anyone heard of Star Wars or Close Encounters.

Christopher Reeve was revealed to the world in a press conference at Sardi's in NYCon Feb 23, 1977. One month before shooting commenced.

David Prowse (Darth Vader) helped train Chris Reeve.

Camera's started rolling on 'A' Stage, Shepperton Studios, England at 8:30am on Monday, 28th March 1977

Shooting had without a Lois Lane. At the time Lesley Ann Warren was close to signing for the role, but Donner and the crew were hesitant in giving the okay. At that point Margot Kidder was contacted. Donner had to phone Lesley and give her the bad news.

Brando was reading his lines from cue cards.

The Krypton, Fortress, special effects and Daily Planet scenes were filmed in England.

Canada was used for the Kansas/Smallville scenes.

Tons of very detailed office equipment were brought from the U.S. to England for the interior scenes of the Planet.

New York's Daily News used for the exterior of the Daily Planet.

Rocky Mountains used for Missile hijack scene.

The scene in which Jeff East ran past a high speed locomotive train involved a cost of $5,000 a day to lease a train which was used for part of the filming of that scene from Canadian Pacific.

Arctic set, where Jeff East journeyed to, was built in Pinewood Studios. The ice was styrafoam and 800,000 gallons of water were used. Tons of salt covered the surface which was corrosive against expensive cameras.

In the October/November of 1978, in the last few weeks before Superman the Movie opened in London, the team at Pinewood were trying to finish the flight through space sequence in which the baby Kal-El grows up. They wanted a baby who looked like Lee Quigley (the original baby who had played the baby Kal-El who was put into the crystal pod by Marlon Brando). Lee Quigley was about two years old by this time. The baby that Richard Donner chose to play the baby in the space shot was my daughter, Elizabeth Sweetman. She was about six months old at the time. To get that wonderful close up of the baby's face took four days, I think, and involved her lying on a glass platform with a huge camera suspended above her on chains, surrounded by 'supplementary crystals'. I remember Richard Donner saying 'Stanley Kubrick eat your heart out' - a reference to Kubrick's baby scene in '2001'. I have some souvenirs of our time at Pinewood, the call sheets etc. It was very interesting, and everyone was so kind. They wouldn't put her name on the credits though, they said it would make Superman a laughing stock! Thanks to mother 'Pauline' for this bit of trivia.

Chris Reeve's early looks were not perfect until early 1978, in 77 his early scenes are in the exterior NYC scenes (rotating door, landing with suction cup burglar are the only two actual exterior shots from NYC used), when he first flies out of the Fortress, and when he returns to talk with Jor-El in the lost footage. More early footage can be seen in Superman2.

The helicopter sequence took six months to film and involved five film units shooting in two countries. The most difficult part in filming the scene was when the helicopter lifted off the ground and got caught by an electric cable. The remains of a crashed helicopter was used, rebuilt and hung by a crane. The helicopter weighed one and a half tons.

To make Christopher Reeve's cape swirl in the wind a mechanical device was created which went inside the cape which caused it to flap. The device was battery-powered, so it could be used for many different kind of scenes.

SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II were both intended to be one 4-hour miniseries. SUPERMAN was to have originally ended with the first rocket exploding into space and the Kryptonian villains released from the Phantom Zone creating a cliff-hanger for the second film.

Larry Hagman shot his cameo for SUPERMAN before he became the notorious J.R. Ewing on TV's "Dallas", which premiered the same year as SUPERMAN.

John Ratzenburger shot his cameo for SUPERMAN years before becoming Ted Danson's famous customer on TV's "Cheers".

Richard Lester confessed as to not having the faintest idea who Superman was when he became involved in the projects (comic books were forbidden in his home as a kid). He agreed to help "produce" SUPERMAN THE MOVIE because he had previously directed movies for the Salkinds (THE THREE MUSKETEERS). Lester acted as a liaison between Richard Donner and the Salkinds because their working relationship had deteriorated so badly during the making of the first film.

All Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty and Valerie Perrine scenes were completed for Superman2 as well. Also, the moon sequence, White House and most of the Fortress scenes were shot by Donner for Superman 2 during 1977.

Richard Lester suggested that all work on Superman 2 should stop and only concentrate on the first film. If the first film sucked who would want to see 2? Donner agreed.

Here is an excerpt from the original "Superman" - it was printed in "The Making of Superman" and is excerpted from pages 121 and 122 from the original script:

240H EXT. STRATOSPHERE
Superman climbs higher and higher over the United States, gaining speed, suddenly flings
the missile up into space like a javelin. It whistles off into the blackness as Superman wheels in 
mid-air, looks back down at the United States, freezes in horror.

   241 ANGLE ON WESTERN U.S.A. - SUPERMAN'S POV
  Rocket #2 hits the San Andreas Fault and explodes! A white-hot mushroom cloud starts to form.

   241A BACK TO SUPERMAN
  Superman streaks back down to Earth.

   241B EXT. SKY - MUSHROOM CLOUD
Superman circles the mushroom cloud at top speed, going faster and faster, not only stopping its expansion but actually compressing it. He then dives straight into the centre of the holocaust.

   241C INT./EXT. MUSHROOM CLOUD
   Superman swoops to the base of the cloud, blows upward with his super breath.

   241D ANGLE ON MUSHROOM CLOUD
The entire cloud with its fallout and pollution is blown high up into the stratosphere, away from     Earth.

   242 CLOSE ON SUPERMAN
   Superman stops in mid-air, looks, listens. A loud rumble begins gathering quickly in intensity. The earthquake has arrived.

   242A EXT. CALIFORNIA COAST - DAY
   The land shakes on the Pacific Coast. Huge chunks of cliff begin to fall into the sea.

   242B ANGLE ON LANDSCAPE - SUPERMAN'S POV
   Great yawning cracks rip open across the land in all directions.

   242C ANGLE ON SUPERMAN
   Superman quickly dives down, disappears into a crack in the Earth.

When you think about how it finally plays in the film, scene 241A jumps to 242B, based on the script references, as Superman flies back to Earth as the mushroom cloud continues growing, then we see the rips in the California coast. It makes more sense when the scene is in its proper place. Whether or not this scene was shot back in 1977 or 1978, I have no idea. (Thanks to Bill William for this script excerpt)

SUPERMAN was cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth's last complete film work. While working simultaneously on the sequel "Superman II" and on "Tess" for Roman Polanski, he died suddenly in late 1978, that's why you see the dedication credit for Unsworth at the beginning of the movie. Geoffrey Unsworth was one of the great cinematographers of the British cinema, and helped lense "2001: A Space Odyssey" for Stanley Kubrick. He's also credited in Superman2

Superman The Movie was released on December 15th USA and on 23rd 1978 in the U.K. and was at number one at the Box Office for eleven weeks in a row and was still at number four in the second week of March in 1979 (three months after release!!!), information captured from The Guinness Book of Box Office Hits. The U.S. Box Office gross for the Movie was $134.218M.

RELIGIOUS REFERENCES IN SUPERMAN THE MOVIE

When Tom Mankiewicz was hired to oversee the script he threw out all of the camp elements that Mario Puzo had included in his original draft. It was decided that they would either ignore the second coming similarities or dive head first into them. He took the dive and here are some of them :

1) Jor-El (God) casts out Zod (Satan) from Krypton (Heaven)

2) The speech Jor-El gives as he and Lara say goodbye to Kal-El "...the son becomes the father and the father the so..."

3) The ship that brings Kal-El to Earth is in the form of a star (the star of Bethlehem)

4) Kal-El comes to a couple unable to have children "...how we prayed and prayed the good Lord see fit to give us a child."

5) Just as there is not much known about Jesus during his middle years Clark travels into the wilderness to find out who he really was and what he had to do.

6) "... you must live as one of them but always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be, they only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, there capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son." Need I say more?

7) Superman starts his work in his thirtieth year - the same age Jesus was when he left Nazareth to preach

There would have been more if Richard Donner could have completed his story of the fall and resurrection and his battle with evil in Superman II.