Update #6 -- the making of Superman, Superman II and what happens after.
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Richard Donner had gone through much of 1978 feeling as if the Sword of Damocles was dangling over his head.
He was in charge of a monumental film project: directing two big-budget epic-scale films about America’s most beloved comic-book superhero, simultaneously. Superman, starring Christopher Reeve in the title role, was to be released in December of that year; its sequel, Superman II, would be released one year later. And although he felt that he was truly creating something special, he also knew that others didn’t share his view.
His working relationship with the films’ producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, had broken down almost completely. The films had gone over-budget and principal photography had run months too long, resulting in the first film missing its planned summer 1978 release date. In the end, Donner and the Salkinds simply weren’t talking to each other. Richard Lester (who had directed the Salkind-produced duology of The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers) was brought on set to act as an intermediary, but Donner had the distinct feeling that they were lining up his replacement. By the time of the first film’s release to theatres, 80% of the filming for the sequel had already been completed – but Donner couldn’t discount the possibility that the Salkinds would fire him regardless, even if the first film was a success.
Then a miracle happened. Superman was not merely a success: it was the most successful film of all time. Audiences had never seen anything quite like it, with its particular blend of idealism, realism, fantasy and hope. It appealed to children and to adults alike. It was clever, but not pretentious. It had comedic moments, but didn’t have the broad campy tone of 1960s Batman. As the tagline had said, “You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly” – and the audience did, to the tune of $350 million domestic box office gross and another $200 million worldwide.
Donner had been right: the Salkinds had fully intended to fire him as director of Superman II. Even if Superman had been a blockbuster success, he still would’ve been fired as more trouble than he was worth. But with Superman breaking all records, and earning them more money than they could’ve dreamed of… as much as they hated to admit it, they couldn’t afford to lose him. Donner was allowed to stay and finish what he started.
Once the promotion tour for Superman was over, Donner went back to work in completing Superman II. Gene Hackman returned for reshoots as the character Lex Luthor; production designer John Barry (who, incidentally, had turned down working with George Lucas on The Star Wars in order to work on Superman instead) also returned; film editor Stuart Baird, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the first film, returned to finish the job he had started on the sequel. Unfortunately, one key crew member who could not return was cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who had died shortly after principal photography on the first film was concluded.
Richard Lester was also retained as an associate producer: despite Donner proving that his instincts in directing Superman were correct, the relationship between him and the Salkinds was still frosty. As it happened, it was Lester who suggested the new ending for Superman II: after the planned twist ending of Superman turning back time had been used for the first film instead of the second as originally planned, Donner had felt the need to come up with a new twist for the sequel to put everything back how it was before the three Kryptonian villains had arrived on Earth – Lester, however, recommended that Donner not include any such twist and instead have the straightforward ending of Superman returning the American flag to the White House. When Donner questioned Lester about the matter of Lois remembering Superman’s secret identity, Lester had shrugged and suggested Superman erase her memory with his superpowers; Donner instead decided to end the film with Lois still knowing that Superman was Clark Kent. While this was very controversial at the time, it ultimately resulted in the comic books finally having Superman reveal his true identity to Lois Lane the year after the film’s release.
Superman II, upon its release in December 1979, was a success on a scale not quite reaching that of its predecessor, but still outperforming Close Encounters from two years before. Further sequels were guaranteed, and the Salkinds decided to follow up with another two films to be shot back-to-back: a sequel Superman III (to be released summer 1982) and the spinoff film Supergirl (to be released summer 1983). By mutual agreement, Donner was not invited back to direct the new films: he departed the Superman franchise confident that his artistic vision had been completed with the existing duology – as did creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz, whose contribution to the films had been invaluable. Instead, Richard Lester (whose friendship with the Salkinds and with Donner remained strong) was hired as the director of both Superman III and Supergirl.
More than simply establishing a Superman film franchise, though, Superman II can also be credited for beginning the new surge of comic-book films in American cinema. Once it was clear that the success of Superman was not a fluke, DC Comics swiftly moved to compound their success and organised in conjunction with Warner Bros. for a new film version of Batman to be made. Tentative talks were also begun regarding eventual film adaptations of Wonder Woman and The Flash.
Meanwhile, similar moves were being made by Marvel Entertainment Group (the parent company of Marvel Comics) to capitalise on the new superhero craze. Plans for a big-budget Spider-Man film were put in motion in conjunction with Columbia Pictures, although initial moves with this were slow (perhaps due to it being regarded as too soon after the broadcasting of the subpar television series The Amazing Spider-Man, episodes of which had been released as feature films outside the US). While Spider-Man remained in temporary limbo, a different Marvel project was seized upon immediately by Paramount Pictures. Considering the project and central character to have the potential to rival Superman, Paramount began pre-production for a film adaptation of Captain America…
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Notes: this is a relatively short update because a lot of it has already been referred to in previous updates. In fact, I was originally going to make Update #6 about something else but I realised some of this stuff needed further elaboration and I wanted to keep this TL as linear as possible.
As you may be able to tell, Superman basically takes the cultural place in TTL that Star Wars has in OTL. All the same ingredients that give Star Wars such a universal appeal are there -- it seems to me that the only thing that prevented Superman from getting such a reception was that it came nineteen months later. In TTL, no one film has yet gotten a reception quite like Star Wars got in OTL: Close Encounters has come close but it hasn't quite measured up.
In OTL, Richard Donner has jokingly said that if Superman had been less of a success the Salkinds probably would've kept him as director for Superman II, and it was only because it was a success that they could fire him. I disagree: if Superman had failed, they would still have fired him but would've done it with extreme prejudice. The only thing that saves Donner in TTL is that Superman is not only a success, but a phenomenal success.
The Observer finally gets his answer: Geoffrey Unsworth is still dead, but I've spared John Barry from contracting meningitis. And because it needed addressing, I also pointed out that due to the delay in The Star Wars being made, someone else was the production designer as Barry would be working on the (undoubtedly better-paying) Superman films.
Because they're not reshooting most of the film, Superman II is released as per the original schedule in December 1979. I don't quite know what the plot of Superman III will be, but Brainiac is the villain and it also provides some of the background for Supergirl's origin story.
Just a general schedule for more superhero films to come: Captain America will be out sometime in 1982, Batman will be released in 1983, and Spider-Man will have to wait until 1985. And, of course, other superhero films will also be released in the '80s and '90s, both from DC and Marvel...