Superman

Superman (1978)

Timing: 2:24 (144 min)

7.16/10
4226

7.052/10
16370

7.4/10
184316

All about film

Video 16

Photo 216

Actors and characters

Release date

1978-12-14

Country

Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Production

Dovemead Films, Alexander and Ilya Salkind Productions, International Film Production

Genre

Science Fiction, Action, Adventure

Budget

$55 000 000

Revenue

$300 478 449

Website

https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/superman-movie

Director

Richard Donner

Actors

Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Trevor Howard, Jack O'Halloran, Valerie Perrine
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Tom Mankiewicz

Producer

Pierre Spengler, Ilya Salkind

Operator

Geoffrey Unsworth

Composer

John Williams

Artist

Audition

Lynn Stalmaster, Mary Selway

Editing

Stuart Baird, Michael Ellis, Robert Simmonds
All team (246)

• Steven Spielberg could have headed the project, but the producers couldn't agree on the director's fee. The film's production team then decided to wait and return to negotiations after the release of Steven's "fish movie" (Jaws). As we remember, the film became a huge hit, and Steven preferred to work on other projects.
• Guy Hamilton could have directed the film (the filmmaker signed a corresponding contract). However, when it turned out that part of the filming would take place in England, Guy had to leave the project. As a tax exile, Guy was allowed to stay in England for no more than 30 days a year.
• Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Charles Bronson, Patrick Wayne, Warren Beatty, Burt Reynolds, and even Clint Eastwood could have played the main role in the film. Ultimately, the decision was made to cast relatively unknown actor Christopher Reeve. Before the start of filming, the actor had only one film and a television series credit to his name. Interestingly, a similar approach was used in 2005, when newcomer Brandon Routh was approved for the role of Superman.
• Considering that Christopher Reeve was unknown to moviegoers, the list of lead actors in the film's trailers began with Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, and only after these big names did Reeve's surname appear on the screen.
• Anne Archer, Leslie Ann Warren, Deborah Raffin, Susan Blakely, and Stockard Channing could have played the role of Lois Lane.
• Before filming began, Christopher Reeve underwent a special muscle-building course under the guidance of David Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. The actor's progress in this area was so noticeable that Richard Donner had to reshoot some scenes that had been worked on at the very beginning of the production process – Christopher had changed too much during that time.
• Marlon Brando appears on screen for only 10 minutes. Nevertheless, the actor received the largest fee of all the project participants – $4 million.
• The cost of creating the opening credits exceeded the budgets of many films being made at the time. In turn, the length of the credits at the end of the film was over 7 minutes, thereby setting a new record for their duration.
• Clark Kent's and Superman's hair are combed in different directions.
• Christopher Reeve had to voice all of Jeff East's lines, who played the role of young Clark Kent.
• Much of the material for the 'Superman' sequel was filmed simultaneously with the original film. Shortly before the filming of the sequel was completed, director Richard Donner was fired, and Richard Lester replaced him, who deemed it necessary to reshoot much of the material.
• Richard Donner invited Jerry Goldsmith as the film's composer, and the composer accepted the invitation. However, during the film's production, Jerry was forced to leave the project and was replaced by John Williams. Six years later, Goldsmith finally had the opportunity to work on the soundtrack for one of the franchise's films – "Supergirl."
• 18 cinematographers were involved in the making of the film.
• In one scene, young Clark Kent kicks a football and sends it into Earth orbit. To film this scene, a special air cannon was placed underground, and the football was launched from it.
• July 13, 1977, went down in US history as one of the most frightening nights. On that night, New York City experienced a massive power outage, causing the city $300 million in damages. That terrible night, the city plunged into complete chaos – mass brawls, arson, looters ransacked stores, and police shot at passersby were all recorded on the streets. The "Superman" film crew was also working on the streets of New York on that crazy night.
• The idea of putting the "S" symbol (like Superman's) on Joe-El's clothing belonged to Marlon Brando.
• In a documentary dedicated to the filming of "Superman", Richard Donner recalls: "Upon receiving the first information about the future project, I immediately tried to put it down on paper. All I had on hand was a stack of business cards, and I wrote this information on the back of one of them." The documentary also shows this business card, which has become a historical artifact. A close examination of these notes reveals the name Nick Nolte as one of the potential participants in the project.
• Released in 1978, the film achieved the status of the highest-grossing film for Warner Bros. (300 million dollars worldwide).
• Initially, Marlon Brando proposed not appearing on screen, offering only his voice to portray a certain image in the form of a levitating green donut. It is unknown whether Brando was joking, but the producers immediately rejected this proposal.
• In the first version of the script, Lex Luthor had two assistants – Otis and Albert. The character of Albert was later removed.
• The scene of Superman and Lois's flight was originally intended to depict the couple flying around the Earth, but it was later decided to keep the main characters within the city limits.
• Gene Hackman was extremely reluctant to part with his mustache for the role of Lex Luthor. Interestingly, on the very first posters for the film, his mustache is still in place. Richard Donner had long telephone conversations with Hackman (without seeing each other) and eventually persuaded the actor to shave his mustache on the condition that he himself would undergo the same procedure. Later, Gene learned that Richard Donner did not wear a mustache.
• The restored version from 2000 has a runtime of 151 minutes.
• Richard Donner managed to shoot a number of scenes that did not make it into the final version of the sequel, including the most famous one – a dialogue between Jor-El (Marlon Brando) and Kal-El (in which Jor-El talks about his desire to commit suicide to save his son). In addition, a scene was filmed in which Lois Lane tries to verify whether Clark Kent is Superman by shooting at him with blanks.
• The scene in which Jor-El explains to Superman why he must keep his true identity a secret was removed from the theatrical release of the film, but was included in the director's cut.
• In all four films dedicated to Superman, the endings use shots of Superman flying into space, filmed during the production of the first film.