You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Superman (1978)

Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman paved the way for Hollywood superhero movies. Here’s how the Christopher Reeve classic flew onto the big screen.

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Although comic book movies wouldn’t launch a full-scale invasion of multiplexes until the turn of the 21st century, Richard Donner first proved that a superhero movie could be a viable blockbuster in 1978 with Superman: The Movie, which set the template for every superhero origin story that would follow.

All these years later, it’s still one of the best superhero movies ever made. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the legendary comic book titans responsible for creating the Man of Steel (and, in a sense, the modern superhero), loved the movie. Here are 10 fascinating details from the making of Superman.

10 Marlon Brando Received $14 Million For 10 Minutes Of Screen Time

With just 10 minutes of screen time filmed across 12 days, Marlon Brando got a heck of a payday from Superman. He received a flat fee of $3.7 million along with a percentage of the movie’s box office gross, which resulted in a total of $14 million.

Despite ultimately being paid more than $1 million a day, Brando still felt he was being short-changed and tried to sue the producers for an additional $50 million, which is why he doesn’t appear in the sequel.

9 Gene Hackman Refused To Shave His Head To Play Lex Luthor

The one defining physical characteristic of Lex Luthor is that he’s bald. But Gene Hackman refused to shave his head for the role. He even refused to wear a bald cap in most of his scenes, which is why Lex has a full head of hair for most of the movie.

Instead, Hackman decided that the character would wear a bunch of wigs to imply that he was bald underneath them. It’s like if an actor cast as the Joker refused to wear clown makeup.

8 The Movie Was Shooting In New York During The City’s 1977 Blackout

Filming for Superman: The Movie was taking place in New York during the city’s famous 1977 blackout. The New York Daily News was only able to continue publishing through the blackout because the producers let the paper use their generators.

7 Richard Donner Clashed With The Producers Constantly During Filming

A lot of Hollywood movies have stories about the creativity-minded director clashing with the money-minded producers. The clashes during production of Superman: The Movie were about the tone of the entire film.

The Salkinds wanted the movie to be a wacky slapstick comedy, whereas Donner wanted to make a movie that took its story seriously.

6 Paul Newman Turned Down All Three Lead Roles

Paul Newman was offered the chance to take any of the three lead roles — Superman, Lex Luthor, or Jor-El — with the promise of a $4 million payday for whichever part he picked. However, he wasn’t interested in any of them.

Horror legend Christopher Lee was offered the role of General Zod, but he had to turn it down, because he’d just moved to Hollywood to escape Britain’s taxes and Superman was partly shooting in Britain.

5 Christopher Reeve Got Into Shape With The Help Of David Prowse, aka Darth Vader

Now that there are dozens of actors getting jacked up to play superheroes every year, a movie star getting in shape to play a comic book role is nothing new. But back in the ‘70s, there was no go-to superhero workout.

In order to bulk up to convincingly play Superman, Christopher Reeve worked out with bodybuilder David Prowse, the hulking actor who played the physical presence (but not the voice) of Darth Vader in the Star Wars original trilogy.

4 Steven Spielberg Was Asked To Direct, But Charged Too Much Money

Steven Spielberg was offered the chance to direct Superman: The Movie, but the salary he demanded was too much for the producers. They decided to wait for his then-upcoming “fish movie,” Jaws, to hit theaters before deciding if they wanted to stump up the money.

Of course, that fish movie was very successful, becoming the highest grossing movie of all time, but ironically, it was so successful that Spielberg was offered a ton of other projects and left Superman in his dust.

3 Marlon Brando Read His Lines Off The Baby’s Diaper

As usual, Marlon Brando was a nightmare to work with on Superman. He refused to learn his dialogue, telling Richard Donner that it was the only way to keep his performance authentic, so his lines had to be written on baby Kal-El’s diaper for him to read while the cameras were rolling.

It was Brando’s idea — suggested flippantly — for Superman’s “S” logo to be a family crest. This is now accepted canon and has since made it into the comics.

2 The Original Screen Tests For Superman’s Flight Looked Terrible, But Christopher Reeve Saved It

The first screen tests for Superman’s flight looked terrible, and the producers couldn’t figure out why until Christopher Reeve was shooting the character’s first flight scene.

As an experienced glider pilot, he was familiar with aerodynamics, and moved his body to indicate when Superman was turning. Suddenly, Superman’s flight looked a lot more believable, and the producers realized what was missing from the test footage.

1 Muhammad Ali And Elton John Were Considered For The Role Of Superman

Then-unknown Christopher Reeve was cast as Superman so that the audience would see the character, not a big star. But before the producers came to this conclusion, a number of established stars were considered for the part.

These included traditional action stars, like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Charles Bronson; respected thespians, like Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, and Robert Redford; and outside-the-box picks, like boxing legend Muhammad Ali and music superstar Elton John. The casting search got so desperate at one point that one of the producers considered casting his wife’s dentist, and even gave the dentist a screen test.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/dc-superman-1978-movie-behind-scenes-facts-christopher-reeve/