Ilya Salkind - Superman Film Series

Superman Film Series

Ilya and Alexander, along with producing partner Pierre Spengler, purchased the film rights to the Superman property in August 1974. It was agreed that the Salkinds would produce and supervise filming on Superman and Superman II simultaneously, as had been the case with The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Securing the film rights from DC Comics was an unbearable experience for the producers, as Spengler was forced to spend two weeks in meetings with DC executives for the specific purpose of establishing an "Integrity of the character" clause. However, the producers did make sure DC approved of every aspect of the film (including dialogue). At this point in time Muhammad Ali, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, James Caan, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen were being considered for the leading role of Superman.

William Goldman was approached to write the script, but chose not to do so, as Ilya Salkind had personally cited certain creative differences with Goldman. Eventually, Ilya would hire Godfather author Mario Puzo. The desperate search for a director then took place. Steven Spielberg expressed high interest and Salkind felt comfortable in hiring him upon being impressed with his work on Duel and The Sugarland Express, though his father was skeptical, feeling that Spielberg was not famous enough and claimed they needed to wait until "that fish movie of his" was released. Jaws was released with unanimous success, though by this time it was too late as Spielberg opted to do Close Encounters of the Third Kind instead.

Peter Yates was interested in directing, and was briefly involved in negotiations though the deal collapsed. Both William Friedkin and Sam Peckinpah were also offered the chance to direct. Friedkin turned down the offer outright, while Peckinpah dropped out of the running when he produced a gun during a meeting with Salkind. Richard Lester, Guy Hamilton, George Lucas, John Guillermin and Ronald Neame were then considered though Lucas was dropped as Salkind found out he was too committed on Star Wars. It was decided to go with Hamilton, in light of the fact that Salkind was impressed with Hamilton's work as director of, among other projects, Goldfinger and Battle of Britain.

Salkind originally recommended Mario Puzo to write the script as a serious science fiction epic. Although Puzo did impress him with certain aspects, Salkind felt the script remained intact with being overall campy, as did Guy Hamilton. In addition they cited too much "Greek tragedy and Shakespearean" elements. A fourth villain sentenced to the Phantom Zone named Zak-Ur appeared as a comedic henchman. By this time, Puzo felt he "could do all he could," turning in two drafts, and David Newman and Robert Benton were hired for rewrite work, as a means to delete objectionable material concerning an excessive amount of comedic scenes. Leslie Newman was brought in once Benton left to direct The Late Show.

Casting started to take place, as Alexander Salkind wanted a famous actor in the role of Superman. Dustin Hoffman was once again highly considered though the idea was dropped. Robert Redford was offered the part, but he felt he was too famous and was not right for the role, as did Burt Reynolds. After the success of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone lobbied hard for the role but was ignored. Paul Newman was offered all three roles of Superman, Jor-El and Lex Luthor to his choosing though he did not accept either one, for a salary of $4 million. Nick Nolte and Rex Harrison would both turn it down. It was decided to focus on casting Jor-El and Lex Luthor and save Superman for later. Hoffman was then offered the role of Luthor, and although he was interested, he turned it down. Marlon Brando would eventually be cast as Jor-El, causing Gene Hackman to be cast as Luthor as he wanted desperately to work with Brando. Impressed by the producers' ability to cast famous actors in respective roles, Warner Brothers decided to distribute the film internationally, rather than simply domestically.

Sets were then being initiated in Rome, Italy as well as having flying tests being experimented. However, Brando could not go to Rome as there was still a warrant out for his arrest due to the sexual obscenity of his role in Last Tango in Paris. It was decided to move the production to England but Hamilton himself was a tax exile from his native country, which only allowed him to spend no more than 60 days a year. The director was forced to drop out because of Brando's actions and by this time six million dollars had already been spent on the production. Mark Robson was then in negotiations to direct after Salkind was impressed with his work on Earthquake. However, after viewing Richard Donner's The Omen it was decided otherwise.

For more details on this topic, see Superman (film)#Production.