John Glen, director of 5 Bond films in the 1980s and the Salkind's "Christopher Columbus" film in 1992, worked as a second unit director on Superman the movie…

In 1977, Pinewood stuntman Bob Simmonds revealed to an up and coming 2nd unit director, John Glen that he was working on "Superman", Which Richard Donner was directing on location in Canada - and would he be interested in directing some of the 2nd unit sequences?

The buzz surrounding Superman was enormous and the expectation that this could be the biggest thing since Star wars would prove justified.

Within a couple of days, he was in Canada, preparing to shoot a complicated sequence illustrating the effect of a earthquake had on parallel rows of telegraph poles. Margot Kidder was due to drive down the road between these poles, initially oblivious to the fact they were collapsing like dominoes in her wake. Canadian special effects technician John Thomas had rigged the telephone poles so they were on hinges with explosive charges and packed with Fuller's Earth - they could be collapsed or erected on cue. At least, that was the idea.
Glen asked him if he could rehearse one or two poles for him, just for reassurances that everything would be OK before filming was to start. Glen watched in dismay as the poles collapsed in the wrong order. Glen went back to his hotel as Thomas went back to the drawing board.

Glen also had to "film the petrol station exploding after Kidder filled up her car and the close ups of her driving away". (This is incorrect as the reason she broke down was because she had no petrol/gas).
Glen had four cameras on the scene, the best-placed being the remote inside the car itself. This filmed what Margot would have seen as she looked over her shoulder at the explosion behind her. When the petrol station blew, the resulting ball of flame filled the whole of the car back window. Dick Donner was especially pleased with that shot.

Margot had to drive through a load of chickens in a Native Indian Village and the birds were supposed to flap around and get of her way. "What if I flatten any of them by accident?" she asked the 2nd unit director, with a look of genuine concern on her face. "It'll be fine", came the reply. "They'll get out of your way."
Unfortunately, she came in a little too fast and there were a few casualties.

Margot was very upset, but was consoled by the genial Indian Chief Tug Smith. "Don't worry, my dear", he said. "Just a few feathers".

Dick Donner took his unit back to England and left Glen with a lot of work to do at the Montana border "Superman marked the beginning of a good relationship with Dick, who was always ringing me up asking me to do 2nd unit work on his films.

Dick's not a man to mince his words and I remember receiving a typically forthright call during 1979: "Hi John, It's Dick. Get your arse down to Louisiana and get me out of this shit!".
Glen was working on Moonraker, so he recommended Jimmy Devis instead.