Trivia / Superman: The Movie

• Ability over Appearance: Christopher Reeve was very skinny and his hair was more blonde when he auditioned for the role. He commented on wearing an extra thick sweater to make him look larger and told them he was an athlete who could bulk up (and did so training with David Prowse). His early screen tests show his slimmer physique, and they used shoe polish to darken his hair.
• Acting for Two: In addition to playing Clark Kent and Superman, Christopher Reeve also supplied the voice of the Metropolis air traffic controller. He is heard on the radio just before the helicopter crash and during the Air Force One scene.
• Actor-Inspired Element: It was Marlon Brando's idea to have the Superman logo be a family crest. This was adopted by the comics.
• Approval of God: Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both delighted with the results of this movie.
• Billing Displacement:
  • While Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were much bigger names (and thus received top billing), it's Christopher Reeve that everyone rightly remembers in this. In fairness, though, Brando did steal the scenes he was in. So much so that comic-continuity Jor-El was eventually retconned to be closer to Brando's version of the character.
  • Jack O'Halloran sure gets high billing for a guy who has no lines and whose entire character in this film boils down to "Tall and angry."
• California Doubling: The now-famous Smallville scenes weren't shot in Kansas, but on the prairie surrounding Calgary, Alberta, specifically in the small towns of Barons, Blackie and Beynon.
• Career Resurrection: For Terence Stamp:
  This was my comeback movie. I couldn’t find work and I couldn’t bear waking up every day and the phone not ringing, or if it did, it was my agent telling me they were looking for a ‘young Terence Stamp.’ (I was 27). So I decided to travel instead of waiting around, and months became years. I didn’t do anything of any significance between ’69 and ’77, I was a swami in an ashram, with long hair and a beard, and I was in orange. learning all these metaphysical techniques and breathing and tantra and finally I got to an ashram in Pune and it seemed like the most beautiful women from every country in the world were there, and they were all totally empowered. I was learning to separate orgasm from ejaculation. I was rechanneling the lifeforce I thought no, I won’t go back to showbiz, this is my life now. Then I went back to this hotel for a weekend, and I must have sent my agent a postcard from there a year before, and as I come in the concierge hands me a telegram, and it’s addressed to “Clarence Stamp” and it’s dogeared and I don’t know how old it was. And he puts it in my hand and the psychic weight of this telegram! I knew my life was about to change. It was from my long-suffering agent: “Would you consider coming to London to meet with Richard Donner about Superman I and II, you’ll have scenes with Marlon Brando. And on the way would you stop in Paris and meet with Peter Brook about a film of Gurdjieff’s book Meetings with Remarkable Men?" And it was like the universe was saying ‘You’re back in the market, son.’ So I was totally confident because I just didn’t care. I had let go of all of it. On the Monday I was General Zod and on the Tuesday I was Prince Lubodevsky - it was in the same studio! When I walked on the set, it seemed like everyone was asleep, but I was so, so ready. The only guy who was really up for it was Brando - he totally understood where I was coming from.
• Creative Differences: Richard Donner was constantly at odds with Salkinds. Donner wanted a film that was respectful to the material, while the Salkinds wanted it to be campy and funny, in the same vein as Batman.
• Creator Backlash: Richard Donner condemned the three-hour "Extended Cut", which restores his least favorite deleted scenes just to either sell more ad space (in the case of TV broadcasts), or to try and convince people who bought at least one Blu-ray of the movie to buy another one.
• The Danza: Brad is played by Brad Flock.
• Darkhorse Casting: Christopher Reeve was cast partly because he was a complete unknown. The idea was to have a fresh face as Superman so they wouldn't see a star, but rather the character.
• Dawson Casting:
  • A minor case. In the extended edition, Lois Lane is the young girl the teenage Clark waves to as he's running past her train, implying that Lois Lane is a number of years younger than Clark Kent. Margot Kidder, however, is four years older than her co-star Christopher Reeve.
  • Slight reversal in the case of Reeve. Although Superman only says "Over 21" when asked about his age, it's later stated that he arrived on Earth in 1948 after a 3-year journey (consistent with apparent age of young Clark as he came out of the spaceship). Assuming the movie takes place circa 1978, the year it was released, that puts Superman in at least his early 30s, but Reeve was only in his mid-20s. Some reports have this as deliberate. The producers could make multiple sequels before he aged out of the role.
• Deleted Scene: One of several first shown when ABC ran the first movie (its broadcast network premiere), towards the end where Lex tries to dispose of Miss Tessmacher for rescuing Superman. He flies in before the deed is affected and, harkening back to an earlier line from Miss Tessmacher, tells her that her mother sends her best.
• Dueling Dubs: There are two French dubs: the original one from 1979 (with Pierre Arditi as Clark/Superman) and the one from 2001 (with Jean-Pierre Michaël as Clark/Superman) made for the special edition. In the case of the latter dub, none of the voice actors from the original dub reprised their roles.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • While Christopher Reeve certainly had the acting chops, everyone agreed that he was too skinny to play Superman. The Salkinds' original solution was for Reeve to wear a rubber muscle suit but he took one look at it and declared that he would work out to gain the necessary physique. He then spent months working with David Prowse (the original man in the Darth Vader suit) to pack on muscle. He put on so much, in fact, that some early shots they had done with him had to be reshot because he looked so different. He also dyed his hair jet black.
  • Gene Hackman was initially reluctant to shave his moustache for the role of Lex Luthor but, on Hackman's first day of filming, Richard Donner said that he'd shave off his own moustache to be even. Hackman went off to his trailer to shave and came back with a clean lip and asked Donner to hold up his end of the bargain. Donner pulled off his moustache, which was fake all along. After the initial shock wore off, Hackman thought it was a hilarious joke and he and Donner established a good working relationship.
• Executive Meddling: The Salkinds were constantly giving input and overriding Richard Donner over every aspect of the project from the overall tone all the way to the size of Christopher Reeve's codpiece. This led to Donner being fired and being replaced with Richard Lester for Superman II and Margot Kidder being given all of two scenes in III for supporting Donner.
• Follow the Leader:
  • It's not so simple because the filmmakers weren't really trying to follow anyone: The original Superman film came out in 1978, making it seem as among the first of a wave of Sci-Fi/Fantasy films trying to cash in on the initial success of the very first Star Wars movie that premiered in 1977. Actually, the Superman movie was conceived and developed independently from George Lucas' project and even before Lucas had pitched the film to a studio (the Salkinds had even considered Lucas himself to direct Superman before he went full speed ahead on A New Hope); both Superman I and Superman II were well into the production phase by the time A New Hope hit theaters for the first time. The thing is that, since the makers of Superman were filming two movies at the same time, their progress was much slower than Lucas. Hence it came out more than a year later appearing to be an imitative effort to Star Wars, but that also meant that the audience was in the mood for more glossy movie fantasy and Superman was well positioned to supply it to its delight.
  • But of course, every single superhero origin film that's come out since more or less owes its story beats to this film.
• In Memoriam: The film begins with a dedication to cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who suffered a fatal heart attack two months prior to its release.
• Looping Lines:
  • During post-production, Christopher Reeve dubbed over Jeff East's scenes as young Clark Kent as well as the helicopter pilot (yes, that helicopter).
  • David de Keyser (the voice of Marc Ange Draco in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) dubbed over the voice of the jail warden at the end.
  • The Air Force One pilot was played by a British actor, and his lines were dubbed, even after he successfully used an American accent.
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • Marlon Brando received an infamously huge salary for the first film. He wanted even more for the second one, which led to all his scenes being cut.
  • Christopher Reeve asked Gene Hackman what his motivation was. His response:
    "You mean besides the $2 million?"
• No Stunt Double: Apart from Christopher Reeve (who handled most, if not all, of his wire work), Margot Kidder did all her stunts during the difficult "car swallowed up by a crack on the ground" scene.
• One for the Money; One for the Art: Marlon Brando hoped to use some of his salary for a proposed 13-part Roots (1977)-style miniseries on Native Americans in the United States.
• Predecessor Casting Gag: Lois Lane's mother Ella Lane is portrayed by Noel Neill, who portrayed Lois herself in the Kirk Alyn serials and The Adventures of Superman.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Steve Kahan (credited here as Stephen Kahan) played Artemus, the undercover cop who had the misfortune to lose his partner thanks to Luthor. Kahan, Richard Donner's cousin, is better known as Captain Murphy from Donner's Lethal Weapon series.
  • Producer Ilya Salkind's mother-in-law Phyllis Thaxter portrayed Martha Kent, Clark's adoptive mother.
• Reality Subtext: Richard Donner dealt with Executive Meddling in the form of Richard Lester, so the film veers wildly between comedy and drama.
• Star-Making Role: For Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, who were the only two unknowns in what was an All-Star Cast prior to the film's success.
• Technology Marches On: The movie really doesn't say it's the late 1970s outside of a few minor lines, but the ubiquitous typewriters in the Daily Planet with nary a computer monitor to be seen drags you back into the time period.
• Throw It In!:
  • When shooting the scene where Superman flies out of the Fortress of Solitude for the first time, Christopher Reeve (an experienced glider pilot who understood how flying objects moved), without telling anyone in advance, banked his body as he went into the turn. This elicited cheers as everyone else finally realized it was the lack of body movement that had made all their test footage look horrible and that they made the right casting decision.
  • Gene Hackman's "Come in, it's open!" in the first film after Superman breaks the door down is said to be an ad-lib.
  • Brando threw out the idea of making the famous Superman "S" the crest of Kal-El's family. Donner agreed, and these days it's still used as such.
  • Margot Kidder accidentally slipped and asked how "big" Superman was during the interview scene. Richard Donner kept it in and Lois's extremely flustered reaction was genuine.
  • Glenn Ford apparently improvised Jonathan Kent feeling a sharp pain in his arm when he has his heart attack, having researched heart attacks and interviewed victims in order to give a realistic portrayal and add to the film's goal of "versimilitude".
• Troubled Production: The film was dogged by clashes between producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind and director Richard Donner over the film's tone; the Salkinds wanted a more slapstick film, while Donner wanted the film to take itself more seriously. Casting for the title role took a long time to settle on Christopher Reeve (although he was definitely worth the effort); he also didn't get along with Jack O'Halloran, who played Non. Marlon Brando was, par for the course, a pain in the ass to work with, refusing to put in the effort to remember his lines and instead reading them off baby Kal-El's diaper. On top of that, Brando often refused to get out of his trailer until he was provided with a satisfactory breakfast, leading to, of all people, a 16-year-old Cary Elwes (who was working on the film as an intern) being landed with the job of finding out what Brando liked to eat and where to source it from. Finally, there were special effects problems (not that many breakdowns, but a lot of money to make them work), which contributed to the film falling behind schedule - they filmed both Superman and its sequel simultaneously without much of a clear schedule in the first place. The film was a hit, but the lost profits to the Salkinds over this led to Donner being fired before the second movie was completed.
• Wag the Director: Gene Hackman was reluctant to wear a bald cap and would only acquiesce to showing Lex Luthor bald in a handful of scenes (shaving his head was completely out of the question). Instead, he came up with the idea that Luthor would wear a series of wigs to imply that the character was bald.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Patrick Wayne was initially cast as Clark Kent before the casting of Christopher Reeve. However, Wayne dropped out of the project when his father, John Wayne, became diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.
    • Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty and James Caan were also offered the role of Clark Kent. However, Redford was turned down due to his demand for a higher paycheck, Eastwood declined due to scheduling conflicts with Every Which Way but Loose and both Beatty and Caan turned down the offer due to their reluctance to portray the iconic comic book character.
    • Perry King, James Brolin and Lyle Waggoner screen-tested for the titular part as well. Waggoner previously played Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman.
    • Nick Nolte, Al Pacino, Jon Voight, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, Kris Kristofferson, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were also considered for Superman before the casting of Reeve.
  • Carrie Fisher, Stockard Channing, Lesley Ann Warren, Deborah Raffin, Susan Blakely and Anne Archer auditioned for the role of Lois Lane before Margot Kidder was cast.
  • Gene Wilder, Dustin Hoffman, George Kennedy and Jack Nicholson were considered for the part of Lex Luthor before the casting of Gene Hackman. Nicholson would later go on to portray Jack Napier in Batman.
  • Orson Welles and Charlton Heston was considered for the role of Jor-El before Marlon Brando was cast.
  • Jack Klugman, Edward Albert and Keenan Wynn were offered the part of Perry White before the casting of Jackie Cooper.
  • John Hurt, Christopher Lee and Christopher Plummer were considered for General Zod before Terence Stamp was cast.
  • Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were approached to direct the film before Richard Donner was hired. However, Spielberg declined due to disagreements over his salary and his previous commitments to other projects after the success of Jaws, while Lucas turned down the offer due to filming conflicts with A New Hope.
    • Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, John Guillermin, Norman Jewison, Peter Yates, Mark Robson, Robert Aldrich and Sam Peckinpah were considered to direct the film as well before Donner was hired. Peckinpah was turned down after he pulled a gun out during his meeting with the producers.
  • Donner first asked Jerry Goldsmith to do the score, and he agreed. However, a schedule conflict came about and John Williams eagerly replaced Goldsmith who, six years later, would write the music for Supergirl.
  • The novel Last Son of Krypton was based on an idea for a Superman movie, though it was released the same time as the actual movie.
  • The film was originally going to end with Superman flinging the missile into space and the explosion would free Zod, Ursa and Non, thus setting up a Sequel Hook. Richard Donner decided against this, as he felt that if people liked the first film, they'll see the second film anyway.
  • Margot Kidder was originally supposed to sing the song "Can You Read My Mind" for the flying sequence with Superman, but disliked it and changed it to voiceover.
  • Originally, the helicopter scene was simply going to have Superman save Lois from falling. Later, Donner decided to have the helicopter drop and the modified scene was called "The Double Jeopardy Scene".
  • In an early draft of the script, one of Lex Luthor's personality quirks is that he likes to chew on Kleenex.
• Word of God: Richard Donner made "verisimilitude" his mission for the movies. He wanted it to feel real, which was no easy feat. There's a reason why "you'll believe a man can fly" is the tagline, though.

---