40 years ago Superman: The Movie defined the superhero movie genre

We would not had the smashing success of the Marvel franchise today if it wasn't for the groundbreaking genre define impact of Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie back on December 15 1978. It is now taken for granted that comicbook movies are straight serious big budget spectacles, but before Christopher Reeve donned the red & blue suit, these films were considered low budget corny campy spectacle with not enough appeal to the masses. The sole superhero movie made that did decent box office business was Batman: The Movie in 1966 which set the tone for the genre for the following decade. Producers Alexander Salkind and his son Ilya Salkind bought the rights of Superman and hoped to make a quick buck by filming two movies simultaneously like they did with 'The Three Musketeers' and save money in the process. They hoped to hire James Bond director Guy Hamilton to tackle the task and DC wanted big stars Steve McQueen or Dustin Huffman to play the role. In fact practically every major male actor in Hollywood was considered for the role, from Burt Reynolds, Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro to even newbie movie star Sylvester Stallone.

To prove they meant business the Salkinds paid $1 million to The Godfather author, Mario Puzo, to write the screenplay and amid big media fanfare hired Marlon Brandon to play Jor-El at the unheard salary of $3.7 million for just a 12 days work. But when Hamilton read Puzo's story draft, he declined the offer to direct stating that screenplay was unfilmmable. So did other directors who claimed Puzo's screenplay might work as a BOOK but not as a film. The Salkinds panicked and hired another team of writers, Robert Benton and the spouses David & Leslie Newman, which took the story the opposite way and made it a campy comedy with even one scene where Superman looking to catch Lex Luthor grabs a bald man who turns out to be Telly Savalas as Kojak who offers Superman a lipop. Warner Bros, who was paying the bill, told the Salkinds to hire The Omen director, Richard Donner. At first Donner also panicked when he read the Benton-Newman scripts, but unlike others he saw elements he can work with from the Puzo treatment. He along creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz worked day & night rewriting the screenplay. Donner always stated that the final screenplay seen on the screen was mostly Mankiewicz work for which he never received a writer credit, but the rejected Puzo, Benton & Newman did, ironically.

Donner, who was Superman fan since childhood, went for a serious tone and big spectacle worthy of the character. This brought a lot of conflict with the producer Pierre Spengler, who never believed in Donner's vision and tried to keep the budget as low as possible. Donner , Spengler and the Salkind had such epic clashes that became legendary in Hollywood lore. The producers wanted to fired Donner. The studio wanted him. So WB had to send an intermediary between the producers and Donner so the film could be finished before Christmas 1978 as they had promised. Many consessions had to be made, but Donner stick to his guns to hire a young unknown soap opera actor, Christopher Reeve, as Superman. He went so far to say if Reeve wasn't given the lead he would walk out. The studio convinced the producers to keep Reeves.


But as the production kept going so did the budget which skyrocketed from an already big $25 million to an insane (by then standards) $50 million. Even the studio suits were nervous and were prepared for major write ups as the film was now five times more expensive than STAR WARS. Pierre Spengler was such a nervous wreck and such a pain for the production that Donner called the studio to have him remove from the set so he and his team could finish the film. By the end of November 1978 Donner was still filming (Part 2) then the studio demanded to turn the film. Donner and his editor worked like crazy editing and mixing the score up until the day of the Red Carpet premiere.

The film opened to great reviews, audiences flocked to buy tickets, Christopher Reeve became a household name, the movie became so successful it gave the producers enough power to fired Donner. At that time a bitter Richard Donner told the press that 69% of Superman 2 was already in the can so they could not hurt the film that much. Gene Hackman refused to return to finish the sequel if Donner wasn't directing, so his role wasn't expanded and the focus was more on the three Kryptonian villains.

The impact of 'Superman: The Movie' helped start the comicbook superhero genre as serious grand spectacle treatment of its original sources. We owe all to the vision, perseverance and work of Richard Donner.

Thank you, Richard..

 

Donner also worked hard to keep Brando focused and stop improvising his lines. One day Brando came to the set with a high fever while wearing the teflon-like suit of Jor-El which was by itself extremely hot while wearing it. "I want to go home." Marlon told Donner to which the director responded, "Hey, you are Marlon Brando. You can do whatever you want, but it is going to cost me a lot of money...". Brando replied, "I'll give you an extra day, I give you my word; just let me go home." Donner let Marlon go home and when producer Pierre Spengler heard Brando left the set he went bananas and asked Donner if he made Brando sign a paper to commit to an additional day of shooting. Donner shook his head in disbelief at that question. "He gave me his word. That's good enough for me and it should be enough for you too." Brando did returned for an additional day and was very cooperative with Donner and pleasant with the cast and crew. "The guy is worth every penny they paid him" Donner later said, "He knew exactly why he was hired: name recognition and to give the project respectability. The movie would had never sold to the studio and audiences without Brando & Puzo names attached to it."





Producer Pierre Spengler, Marlon Brando & Richard Donner



Pierre Spengler, Mario Puzo, Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve

 

Hoh-ooohhhhh! What tha fock???

 

One of my favorite movie posters from the film.



the official movie poster when it released on December 15, 1978.

 

Holy Fock!!
What's this all about???

 

These are actors are dead. What's your beef?

 

Maybe in Latin America but unless my memory serves me wrong this is the movie poster I remember when this was in theaters.

 

Loved that film when I was a tiny kid, used to watch it over n over

 

It's a great movie but Superman 2 is better.

 

I always hated the bit when he lost all his powers and gets beat up- that should never happen!

 

Yeah, and Lois fell in love with Superman, not Clark Kent, so why did he change? I love the end scene where he comes back as Superman . Gee that's funny, I've never seen garbage eat garbage before. Best line ever .

 

Damn that’s a good point. If the 3 Villans had never come to earth and Clark and Louis go through with that marriage she was probably dumping him in 2-3 years. She’d probably win the fortress of solitude in the divorce whereas she locks him out and doesn’t let him get his powers back. She would actually deprive earth of its mightiest hero because women tend to be vindictive bitches.

 

That's interesting. In Superman 3, Lana Lang liked Clark Kent.

 

I never understood why Superman had so much trouble with Lex Luthor. It was just really the dumbest sh*t in comic book history. If you're Superman, you simply take Luthor's bald little weak ass and tear his spine out of his back and then throw his corpse out of the f*cking planet. What's so f*cking difficult about it??

 

Weird that the producers fired Donner after the monster hit that Superman I became.

 

It was all ego driven. You’ve got some guy you hired who you feel is beneath you and he can either make or break your investment and he’s talking shit, not listening to you and what not. Soon as his job is done and your investment is secure you can flex your muscles and tell him to kick rocks.

 

True. And Donner did go well over the budget but Superman I and II were epic movies and they delivered big time at the box office. The restraints financially held him back from making the movies as good as they became but he stuck to his guns. Warner Bros made a ton of money from the movies. Over $300 million in total domestically and worldwide for Superman I alone on a $55 million budget and then hundreds of millions of dollars more in VHS and DVD sales over the years including the many repackaged/rereleased DVD editions (Ultimate Collector's Edition, 4 disc special edition, Anthology, etc).

 

Simple answer: DC are shit.
Always have been.

Knew that when I was 10 yrs old.

 

To have sex with her. Imagine Superman shooting his cum inside Lois: it would have made a hole on her body and destroy part of the Fortress of Solitude!

 

Donner hated the producers, but was rightly proud of his film. IMO no one has done a better origin movie as Superman: the Movie. Donner went on to have a great career and more box office hits like The Goonies and the Lethal Weapon films.

The Salkinds tried to recreate the magic and failed with Santa Claus: The Movie, Superman III, SuperGirl and more flops that put them out of business.

Karma...

 

I bet you've played this scenario over in your tiny, little sexually dysfunctional mind many times, eh?

 

Haha but after that he was just Clark Kent. Did she accept the fact that he was Clark Kent/Superman? She was never attracted to Clark though, they were just work colleagues/friends and she had no sexual feelings towards Clark. And why did Clark need to wear his glasses after? So many questions.

 

Well Clark’s glasses weren’t only used to trick Lois Lane. The whole planet went around thinking “man, that guy looks just like Superman, can’t be though, Superman has 20/20 vision and wears tights.”

The biggest thing is, when it came to sex, you know Clark wasn’t hit that shit the same when he lost his powers. He probably turned into a two minute man and everything.

 

I loved Superman III
Even though it was corny as hell, kids loved it. Many of the scenes in the movie were fun including the junkyard fight between Clark and evil Superman and the scene where Superman's getting sh*t faced drunk and flinging peanuts and smashing up the dude's bar. LOL

 

Lol. But people did not think that Superman has a secret identity. They just think he's Superman and flies around the whole time saving the world. And how did one kiss result in Lois losing her memory? In the end scene. That was silly.

And Clark as a human was a pussy so he probably is a two minute man .

 

Imagine if Evil Superman from Superman 3 had hooked up with the female super-criminal Ursa from Superman 2. They'd have a badass for a son.

 

I'd watch the original Superman annyyyy.... fucking.... day over any Avengers film.

 

I watched a few minutes of Wonder Woman the other day and it almost felt like I was watching a video game during the fight scenes. The CGI was so over the top.

 

That's because of the greatness of Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, not to mention the amazing acting of the then-unknown Christoper Reeve. :)