The following is an excerpt from "Brando the Biography" by Peter Manso, an 1100 page critically acclaimed biography from 1994:


Brando was next scheduled to appear in "Superman" for another huge salary. Oddly enough, he had been brought to the project by his old girlfriend Marie Cui. She was now the live-in aide for the aging Hollywood agent Kurt Frings, and through him she had met the father-and-son team of European filmmakers Alexander and Ilya Salkind. The Salkinds had made a splash with their "Musketeer" movies and were now trying to go big time in Hollywood. "Cui factored the 'Superman' project for them and got it for Marlon," confirmed one of the actor's friends. "But at the time he wasn't
aware that she was receiving $30,000 for putting the Salkinds in touch with him. When he found out, it pissed him off that she had made money off of him. Still, he agreed to do the movie."

When Brando first signed on, he had bragged to the Indians then visiting him at Mulholland at he had just made $3 million. In fact, the deal that Norman Garey finally cut in December 1976 was worth much more. For twelve days' filming in two "Superman" movies (they were to be shot simultaneously), he was to receive $3.7 million, plus 11.3 percent of domestic and 5.65 percent of foreign grosses, with a minimum guarantee of $1.7 million.

Due on the set of "Superman" at London's Shepperton Studios on March 23, 1977, Marlon arrived a week early, hoping to raise money for a proposed thirteen-part "Roots"-type series on Indians. He had also intentionally delayed his scheduled flight by one day to avoid dealing with the studio executives' official welcoming committee.

Appearing on the set for his first day of work, he was in a foul mood, however, swathed in sweaters and scarves, and complaining about flu and jet lag. Veteran director Richard Donner, who had made his name and fortune with "The Omen", did not know quite what to expect from the eccentric star.

Brando had already tweaked him by suggesting that his costumed character, Jor-El, looked "like a bagel" and by relaying the message that he expected to play Jor-El as a "green suitcase." Already Donner had phoned Coppola to ask for insight into Brando's personality; Jay Kanter had told him Brando didn't like to work, and Coppola seconded this assessment.

Nevertheless, that first day Brando seemed willing to cooperate. Ready to rehearse his opening scene, he suggested to Donner that they roll the cameras during the rehearsal. "Who knows?" he said. "We might get lucky."

Costumed in a long, flowing robe that effectively hid his bulk, he looked like a pagan priest, and his hair was left silver and slightly long, much like a stentorian southern senator. He took his marks and began his opening monologue in which he was to lament having to send his infant son to earth.
While camping it up as Superman's father might have been appropriate, he chose to play it straight, and delivered the Polonius-like adages much the way a Shakespearean actor might soliloquize. "When he finished, there was stunned, respectful silence," said Donner. "The first take became the one that was used in the picture."

Over the next twelve days, stories spread in the British tabloids that Brando was temperamental, vain, and eccentric, although these negative reports probably had more to do with indignation at his salary than with his actual behavior on the set. Donner insisted that the actor hadn't been difficult, just ill with the flu, and had completed his scenes nearly on
schedule. "In fact, Brando was wonderful," confirmed Tom Mankiewicz, who had been called in as "creative consultant" to doctor the script. "By the time we were finished we had more than an hour of usable footage for both ["Superman I" and "II"].

Two days into the shoot, Brando was still feeling sick and asked to go home early. Donner nearly had a heart attack, having counted every minute of the tight, twelve day schedule that Brando insisted upon. "I had even been figuring out what it cost every time he went to the bathroom," the director explained. "But I said the only thing I could say: 'You're Marlon Brando. How can I stop you?'"
Brando replied, "Tell you what, I'll give you an extra day. How about that?"

Brando was offering to do for free what would ordinarily have cost $250,000, and Donner was reassured that he would get everything he needed for the actor's scenes. "So I sent him home happily," he recalled.

The production would be besieged by later troubles, but these were not Brando's responsibility. While continuing to note Brando's income for his brief appearance in "Superman", critics actually praised his performance when the movie was released on December 15, 1978. Still, Andrew Sarris got it right when he likened his "solemn intonations" to "an Old Vic actor compelled to declaim in a Khyber Pass movie."

"Superman" was an immediate blockbuster at the box office, grossing $64,423,042 in just thirty-three days. But Brando, Donner, and the original scriptwriter, Mario Puzo, were all unhappy, charging that the Salkinds were
cheating them out of their expected percentages of the profits. Just two days after the movie's opening, Brando filed suit for $50 million. He also petitioned the Los Angeles Superior Court for an injunction against Warners' distribution of the film or the use of his "name, acts, poses, appearances, performances, image, likeness, voice and/or other personal attributes." On December 26, the court refused to issue a temporary restraining order, concluding that there was no evidence of injury. Nevertheless, Norman Garey would pursue the case for the next several years. The Salkinds, meanwhile, removed Donner as director of "Superman II", replacing him with British director(NOTE: He's an American living in England) Richard Lester, and excised all of Brando's scenes from the sequel.