Superman: The Movie

Superman: The Movie is a 1978 superhero film directed by Richard Donner. It is based on the DC Comics character of the same name and stars Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Valerie Perrine and Ned Beatty.
The film depicts Superman's origin, including his infancy as Kal-El of Krypton and his youthful years in the rural town of Smallville. Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a mild-mannered disposition in Metropolis and develops a romance with Lois Lane, while battling the villainous Lex Luthor.
This version was conceived in 1973 by Ilya Salkind. Several directors, most notably Guy Hamilton, and screenwriters (Mario Puzo, David and Leslie Newman and Robert Benton) were associated with the project before Donner was hired to direct. Donner brought Tom Mankiewicz in to rewrite the script, feeling it was too campy. Mankiewicz was credited as creative consultant. It was decided to film both Superman and Superman II simultaneously.
Principal photography started in March 1977 and ended in October 1978. Tensions rose between Donner and the producers, and a decision was made to stop filming Superman II and finish the first film. Donner had already shot 75% of the planned sequel, eventually giving birth to Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. Superman was released with critical acclaim and financial success. Reviewers noted parallels between the film's depiction of Superman and Jesus and particularly praised Reeve's performance. The film's legacy presaged the mainstream popularity of Hollywood's superhero film franchises.
==Plot==
Jor-El, a leading scientist on the planet Krypton and a senior member of Krypton's Council, is presiding over a trial of General Zod and two other dangerous criminals who had attempted to overthrow Krypton's government; they were convicted and sentenced to endless isolation in the Phantom Zone, an eternal void that Jor-El himself had discovered. 
During that time, Jor-El had been attempting to persuade the Council to evacuate the planet as its red sun's gravity was pulling Krypton closer to it- and to its imminent destruction. But the other members of the Council complacently believe that Jor-El is inciting insurrection with his fatalistic forecast and threaten him with his own imprisonment in the Phantom Zone. 
With no other choice, and wanting to give his son Kal-El a chance, Jor-El returns home to put him into a spacecraft he built and programmed to travel to the distant planet Earth; Lara sees the Earth as being primitive and that Kal-El will be a stranger among its inhabitants, but Jor-El sees that as an advantage, and assures Lara that Kal-El will never be alone. After they watch the craft depart from Krypton, the ground crumbles underneath their feet and everyone else's until both Krypton and its sun explode, annihilating its entire population, and hurtling the planet's fragmentary remains across the twenty-eight known galaxies.
The craft carrying Kal-El, however, survives and travels through space while the crystals embedded in the ship's hull continuously educate him on numerous subjects including Einstein's theory of relativity; during the trip, Jor-El mentions that it is forbidden to interfere in human history. It takes three years for the ship to reach Earth, burning up as it enters its atmosphere and crash lands in a field near Smallville, Kansas, causing Jonathan and Martha Kent to pull over and investigate. They see a little boy emerge from the wreckage unharmed. The couple discuss what to do with the child when their truck falls off the jack, nearly injuring Jonathan who was working underneath it to change a flat tire. Kal-El easily lifts the truck with his bare hands, making the Kents wonder if the child really came from outer space.
Fifteen years later, Kal-El, adopted by Jonathan and Martha and named Clark Kent, is busy putting away equipment for the Smallville High School football team when his friend Lana Lang invites him over to listen to records with some of their friends. Clark accepts the offer, but then realizes that he has too much work to do and watches Lana drive off with others including Brad, her ex-boyfriend. Frustrated, Clark kicks a football high into the air and then runs back home at super-speed, amazingly outracing a passenger train, and in so doing grabbing the attention of one of its passengers- a young girl named Lois Lane. Clark arrives home at the farm just moments before Brad and Lana drive by. Seeing Clark, Brad asks how he got there so fast; when Clark replies (truthfully) that he ran, Brad and the others look at him strangely and drive away. Jonathan chides Clark for showing off, but after Clark rationalizes that he is only doing what he is capable of doing, mentioning that he can score a touchdown every time he gets a football in his hands, Jonathan says "There's one thing I do know, son, and that is you are here for a reason", though he doesn't know what it is, but then he whimsically points out that, "it's not to score touchdowns". As Clark tries to get his father to race him up to the house, Jonathan suffers a fatal heart attack and falls dead. Later at his funeral, a mournful Clark is ashamed that with all his powers, he couldn't save his father.
Late one night, Clark finds himself going into the barn where he uncovers the wrecked spacecraft, and then finds the very thing that has called him: a now-glowing green Kryptonian crystal placed in the ship by Jor-El. Clark later says goodbye to his mother Martha and sets out toward the North Pole, where he flings the green crystal toward the Arctic Sea. From where it lands, it creates a 'Fortress of Solitude', a large structure resembling Kryptonian architecture. Clark enters, and after inserting a crystal into a tube, summons the spirit of his biological father Jor-El, who first tells him his real name- Kal-El. Breaking from his earthly environment, Jor-El teaches Kal-El what he needs to know about himself, his heritage, and about the powers he possesses (repeating that interfering with human history is forbidden). When they finish, twelve earth years have passed, and Clark, now wearing a red and blue costume with his Kryptonian house crest emblazoned on its chest. takes off with his duty now clearly defined: to dedicate himself and his powers to a ceaseless battle against crime and injustice.
Arriving in Metropolis, Clark, now assuming a meek and mild personality, is hired on as a reporter for the Daily Planet by editor-in-chief Perry White who immediately assigns him to the City Beat alongside his ace reporter Lois Lane. As Lois shows Clark around the city and the Planet offices, two plainclothes policemen are tracking a man named Otis, a short and stocky fellow in a suit and boater hat as he makes his way through Grand Central Station into the underground subway tunnels and then through a secret passageway that leads him to the palatial hideout of one Lex Luthor, who fancies himself "the greatest criminal mind of our time". Lex takes the paper Otis brings him and reads that the military is planning to do some nuclear missile tests soon, which he intends to use for his "Crime of the Century", a real estate swindle that, if it goes according to plan, will net him an enormous fortune.
That night, Lois is taking a helicopter to Metropolis Airport to rendezvous with Air Force One for an interview with the president, but just as the helicopter takes off from the rooftop helipad it snags on a loosening cable causing it spin out of control and crash on the edge of the skyscraper knocking out the pilot and leaving Lois dangling precariously over the edge, with almost nothing separating her from the ground more than a hundred stories below. With the chopper teetering dangerously on the edge of the roof, Lois screams for help as she hangs on for dear life, gradually losing her grip as the Helicopter continues to slowly roll over the edge. Clark exits from the Planet building, sees her dress cap lying on the sidewalk, and when he looks up and sees the chopper tottering on the brink, quickly changes into his Kryptonian uniform, and rescues both Lois and the helicopter just as they each fall from the roof. After landing safely back on the helipad, Lois asks who he is, but he only replies, "A friend", and takes off. Lois waves at him as he flies away, and then faints to the helipad floor.
But more surprises would come that night: the newly-arrived hero apprehends a would-be cat burglar in the act of scaling a building, rescues a young girl's cat stuck in a tree, and captures a group of bank robbers as they are making their escape in a yacht. But the biggest rescue of all happens immediately after Air Force One, still on its way to Metropolis with the president on board, is struck by lightning destroying one of its engines. 
Later, back in his Fortress of Solitude, Clark discusses with Jor-El everything that happened; Jor-El surmises that Clark enjoyed the gratification from performing all the rescues, and advises Clark to accept that he is now revealed to the world. But Jor-El then cautions him that he should maintain his secret identity, reasoning that he would be called on endlessly for tasks that humans could easily accomplish for themselves. Jor-El then points out that his enemies will discover that the only way to hurt him is by hurting the people he cares for. 
The next morning, the flying man behind all the spectacular rescues is making front-page headlines everywhere. In a meeting with all of his reporters, Perry is dead set on making "the name of this flying whatchamacallit" synonymous with the Daily Planet, posing questions to the others including:
* "What does the 'S' stand for? Stanley? Sheldon?"
* "What's he got hidden under that cape of his? Batteries?!"
* "Why did he show up last night?"
* "Does he have a girlfriend?" (asked to Lois)
* "What's his favorite ball team?" (asked to Clark)
Before sending them on their way, Perry assures whoever gets the story that they're going to "wind up with the single most important interview since... God talked to Moses!"
During the meeting Lois opens up a small envelope and finds a note from "a friend" to meet at her place that evening. Believing that it's the same person who rescued her, Lois waits until he shows up, then casually eases her way into doing an interview with him to find out as much as she can about him. He tells about his home planet Krypton, and some of his abilities, even mentioning that he can see through anything except lead. When Lois asks how fast he can fly, he decides to let her find out by taking a ride with him; she bravely holds on as he flies her all around the city, by the Statue of Liberty, and even high into the clouds. It is after he drops her off her back at her apartment that Lois, calling him "a super man" and recalling the "S" shield on his chest, comes up with the perfect name for him... 
With everyone now reading all about Lois' exclusive interview with the newly-dubbed Superman in the Daily Planet, Lex Luthor now plots how he can get rid of what is now a clear and present danger to his "Crime of the Century".
One day as Clark Kent is pulled into Perry White's office for a talk, his ears pick up a high-pitched shrill and the voice of Lex Luthor threatening to kill half the population of Metropolis by unleashing a poisonous gas pellet through thousands of airducts in the city. Clark quickly changes into Superman and tracks the frequency to the underground lair of Lex Luthor, where he is subjected to, and easily survives, a deadly gauntlet: a bombardment of gunfire, infernal blasts from a column of flamethrowers, and a deep freeze chamber. Now having Superman's attention, Luthor shows him his actual plan of detonating two nuclear devices that he and his lackeys have re-programmed to specific coordinates: the first toward the San Andreas Fault where it will cause a massive earthquake that will level much of California into the sea causing millions of casualties; the other heading toward Hackensack, New Jersey. Luthor also tricks Superman into opening a lead-lined box that had a chunk of Kryptonite attached to a chain, which Luthor wraps around Superman's neck as its radiation weakens him before being dumped into Luthor's pool to drown.
While Luthor watches the launch of the nuclear missiles, Miss Teschmaker, his girlfriend and moll, becomes worried for her mother who lives in Hackensack, and so bravely rescues Superman- but only in exchange for his promise to stop the missile heading for the East Coast first, throwing the chain with the Kryptonite away and down a sewer grating. Flying as quickly as he can after the missile, Superman manages to grab it from behind and push it toward outer space to detonate harmlessly. But as he looks back at the surface, he sees that the other missile has found its target, and the ensuing explosion has activated the San Andreas Fault, and now he has to mitigate the damage from what is becoming a major earthquake. 
Though Superman succeeds in re-sealing the fault line before it completely collapsed, the aftershocks still do some considerable damage: 
* The Golden Gate Bridge slowly falls apart, causing a school bus to careen to the edge of the bridge and nearly over the side
* A rip in the ground across a railroad track threatens to derail a speeding passenger train
* The Hoover Dam cracks and nearly claims Jimmy as a casualty, while the dam failure is about to deluge a nearby community
* The dam's power grid is collapsing sending dangerous currents and sparks flying as workers scramble for safety
Superman is able to correct each of these dangers as fast and as efficiently as possible, but when he realizes that he has forgotten about Lois and takes off to find her, he is too late to save her as she was crushed to death after a rip in the ground swallowed her vehicle with her still inside. Enraged by this loss, Superman angrily takes off into space, but he hears Jor-El's voice reminding him that, "It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history!", but then when he hears Jonathan's voice saying "You are here for a reason", and then his own younger voice lamenting that he couldn't save his Earthly father, Superman ignores Jor-El's warning and manipulates time on Earth into going backwards undoing much of the damage caused by the missile, and then restarting time going forward so all that Lois remembers are the exploding gas station and falling power poles, and that her car just ran out of gas.
After reuniting with Lois and Jimmy to make sure they are okay, Superman flies back to Metropolis to capture Luthor and Otis flying them to prison where they belong.
==Cast (in order of appearance)==
==== Krypton: ====
* Marlon Brando as Jor-El: Superman's biological father on Krypton. 
** Brando later sued the Salkinds and Warner Bros. for $50 million because he felt cheated out of his share of the box office profits. This stopped Brando's footage from being used in Richard Lester's version of Superman II.
* Jack O'Halloran as Non: a "mindless aberration whose only means of expression are wanton violence and destruction"; one of three Kryptonian villains who are sentenced to isolation in the Phantom Zone.
* Sarah Douglas as Ursa: General Zod's consort and second-in-command, "whose perversions and unreasoning hatred of all mankind have threatened even the children of the planet Krypton". She too was sentenced to the Phantom Zone for her unethical scientific experiments.
* Terence Stamp as General Zod: former head of Krypton's defenses; a megalomaniac convicted of subversion and sedition after an unsuccessful attempt to bring Krypton under his own despotic rule. After his conviction he swears vengeance against Jor-El and his offspring before being condemned to the Phantom Zone with Ursa and Non.
* Trevor Howard as the First Elder: Head of the Kryptonian Council, who refuses to believe Jor-El's claim that Krypton is doomed to destruction. He warns Jor-El that he will be charged with insurrection- and face his own imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, if he attempts to warn anyone else or even try to leave the planet.
* Harry Andrews as the Second Elder: Council member, who compels Jor-El to be reasonable about his theories of Krypton's fate.
* Maria Schell as Vond-Ah: a Council member and colleague of Jor-El's, but like the others, is also not convinced of Jor-El's theories.
* Susannah York as Lara: Jor-El's wife and biological mother of Kal-El, who has reservations about Jor-El sending their son to Earth as its inhabitants are primitive in comparison to Krypton. But Jor-El sees that as an advantage.
* Lee Quigley as the infant Kal-El.
==== Smallville: ====
* Glenn Ford as Jonathan Kent: Clark Kent's adoptive father in Smallville. 
* Phyllis Thaxter as Martha Kent (née Clark): Clark Kent's faithful adoptive mother in Smallville. She is her son's emotional support after Clark is devastated by Jonathan's death. Thaxter was producer Ilya Salkind's mother-in-law.
* Aaron Smolinski as Baby Clark Kent, found by Jonathan and Martha inside the spacecraft after it crashes nearby.
* Jeff East as the teenaged Clark Kent: As a teenager, Clark is forced to hide his superhuman abilities, making him unpopular among his classmates and frustrating his efforts to gain the attention of classmate Lana Lang. Following the death of his adoptive father, he travels to the Arctic to discover his Kryptonian heritage.
** All of East's dialogue in the film is dubbed over by Christopher Reeve.
* Diane Sherry as Lana Lang: Young Clark's classmate at Smallville High School and initial love interest.
* Brad Flock as Brad Wilson: Clark's high school rival, and Lana's ex-boyfriend who still treats her as his.
==== Metropolis: ====
* Margot Kidder as Lois Lane: A gutsy but disaster-prone reporter for the Daily Planet who becomes something of a romantic interest for Clark Kent, though she has fallen in love with Superman. 
** Over 100 other actresses were considered for the role including Anne Archer, Susan Blakely, Lesley Ann Warren, Deborah Raffin and Stockard Channing, all of them screen tested from March through May 1977. The final decision was between Channing and Kidder, with Kidder winning the role.
* Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen: A teenage photographer and cub reporter for the Daily Planet. 
** Jeff East, who portrayed the teenage Clark Kent, originally auditioned for this role
* Jackie Cooper as Perry White: editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet and Clark Kent's fair-minded but short-tempered boss. 
** Keenan Wynn was originally cast as White but dropped out shortly before filming because of failing health. Cooper, who originally auditioned for Otis, was subsequently cast.
* Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent / Superman: 
** Reeve was picked from over 200 actors who auditioned for the role, including Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood and others.
* Rex Reed has a brief cameo.
* Ned Beatty as Otis: Lex Luthor's bumbling and dimwitted henchman.
* Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor: An egocentric criminal genius armed with vast resources, who would become Superman's arch-nemesis.
* Valerie Perrine as Eve Teschmacher: Lex Luthor's shapely consort and accomplice. Already cynical of Luthor's increasing grandiosity and disgusted by his cruelty, she develops an attraction to Superman and then saves him from the kryptonite after learning that one of the missiles Luthor had them re-program was aimed at her mother's hometown of Hackensack, New Jersey.
* Larry Hagman has a cameo as an unnamed Army major, just months after beginning his most memorable role as the ruthless J.R. Ewing in the TV series Dallas.
Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill have cameo appearances as young Lois Lane's parents. Alyn and Neill portrayed Superman and Lois Lane in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), and were the first actors to portray the characters onscreen in a live-action film. Neill reprised her role in the 1950s Adventures of Superman TV series, and also appeared as Lex Luthor's elderly wife in the opening scene of the film Superman Returns (2006).
Edward Finneran and Tim Hussey, teenage boys who won "The Great Superman Movie Contest", appeared as football players (in gray) during the scene with Clark as the equipment manager of the Smallville football team. David Petrou, the author of the making-of book about the film also appears briefly in that scene.
==Production==
===Development===
Ilya Salkind had first conceived the idea for a Superman film in late 1973. In November 1974, after a long difficult process with DC Comics, the Superman film rights were purchased by Ilya, his father Alexander Salkind, and their partner Pierre Spengler. DC wanted a list of actors that were to be considered for Superman, and approved the producer's choices of Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman. The filmmakers felt it was best to film Superman and Superman II back-to-back, simultaneously, and to make a negative pickup deal with Warner Bros. William Goldman was approached to write the screenplay, while Leigh Brackett was considered. Ilya hired Alfred Bester, who began writing a film treatment. Alexander felt, however, that Bester was not famous enough, and so hired Mario Puzo (The Godfather) to write the screenplay at a $600,000 salary. Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Richard Lester, Peter Yates, John Guillermin, Ronald Neame and Sam Peckinpah were in negotiations to direct. Peckinpah dropped out when he produced a gun during a meeting with Ilya. George Lucas turned down the offer because of his commitment to Star Wars.
Ilya wanted to hire Steven Spielberg to direct, but Alexander was skeptical, feeling it was best to "wait until [Spielberg's] big fish opens". Jaws was very successful, prompting the producers to offer Spielberg the position, but by then Spielberg had already committed to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Guy Hamilton was hired as director, while Puzo delivered his 500-page script for Superman and Superman II in July 1975. Jax-Ur appeared as one of General Zod's henchman, with Clark Kent written as a television reporter. Dustin Hoffman, who was previously considered for Superman, turned down Lex Luthor.
In early 1975, Brando signed on as Jor-El with a salary of $3.7 million and 11.75% of the box office gross profits, totaling $19 million. He horrified Salkind by proposing in their first meeting that Jor-El appear as a suitcase or a green bagel with Brando's voice, but Donner used flattery to persuade the actor to portray Jor-El himself. Brando hoped to use some of his salary for a proposed 13-part Roots-style miniseries on Native Americans in the United States. Brando had it in his contract to complete all of his scenes in 12 days. He also refused to memorize his dialog, so cue cards were compiled across the set. Fellow Oscar winner Hackman was cast as Lex Luthor days later. The filmmakers made it a priority to shoot all of Brando and Hackman's footage "because they would be committed to other films immediately". Though the Salkinds felt that Puzo had written a solid story for the two-part film, they deemed his scripts too long and so hired Robert Benton and David Newman for rewrite work. Benton became too busy directing The Late Show and David's wife Leslie was brought in to help her husband finish writing duties. George MacDonald Fraser was later hired to do some work on the script but he says he did little.
Their script was submitted in July 1976, and carried a camp tone, including a cameo appearance by Telly Savalas as his Kojak character. The scripts for Superman and Superman II were now at over 400-pages combined. Pre-production started in Rome, with sets starting construction and flying tests being unsuccessfully experimented. "In Italy," producer Ilya Salkind remembered, "we lost about $2 million [on flying tests]." Marlon Brando found out he couldn't film in Italy because of a warrant out for his arrest, a sexual obscenity charge from Last Tango in Paris. Production moved to England in late-1976, but Hamilton could not join because he was a tax exile.
Mark Robson was strongly considered in talks to direct, but after seeing The Omen, the producers hired Richard Donner. Donner had previously been planning Damien: Omen II when he was hired in January 1977 for $1 million to direct Superman and Superman II. Donner felt it was best to start from scratch. "They had prepared the picture for a year and not one bit was useful to me." Donner was dissatisfied with the campy script and brought Tom Mankiewicz to perform a rewrite. According to Mankiewicz "not a word from the Puzo script was used". "It was a well-written, but still a ridiculous script. It was 550 pages. I said, 'You can't shoot this screenplay because you'll be shooting for five years'," Donner continued. "That was literally a shooting script and they planned to shoot all 550 pages. You know, 110 pages is plenty for a script, so even for two features, that was way too much." Mankiewicz conceived having each Kryptonian family wear a crest resembling a different letter, justifying the 'S' on Superman's costume. The Writers Guild of America refused to credit Mankiewicz for his rewrites, so Donner gave him a creative consultant credit, much to the annoyance of the Guild.
====Casting of Superman====
It was initially decided to first sign an A-list actor for Superman before Richard Donner was hired as director. Robert Redford was offered a large sum, but felt he was too famous. Burt Reynolds also turned down the role, while Sylvester Stallone was interested, but nothing ever came of it. Paul Newman was offered his choice of roles as Superman, Lex Luthor or Jor-El for $4 million, turning down all three roles. When it was next decided to cast an unknown actor, casting director Lynn Stalmaster first suggested Christopher Reeve, but Donner and the producers felt he was too young and skinny. Over 200 unknown actors auditioned for Superman. Olympic champion Bruce Jenner had auditioned for the title role, while Patrick Wayne was cast, but dropped out when his father was diagnosed with stomach cancer, from which he died months after the film's 1978 release. Both Neil Diamond and Arnold Schwarzenegger lobbied hard for the role, but were ignored. James Caan, James Brolin, Lyle Waggoner, Christopher Walken, Nick Nolte, Jon Voight, and Perry King were approached. Kris Kristofferson and Charles Bronson were also considered for the title role."We found guys with fabulous physique who couldn't act or wonderful actors who did not look remotely like Superman," creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz remembered. The search became so desperate that producer Ilya Salkind's wife's dentist was screen tested.
Stalmaster convinced Donner and Ilya to have Reeve screen test in February 1977. Reeve stunned the director and producers, but he was told to wear a "muscle suit" to produce the desired muscular physique. Reeve refused, opting instead to undertake a strict physical exercise regime headed by David Prowse. Prowse had wanted to portray Superman, but was denied an audition by the filmmakers because he was not American. Prowse also auditioned for Non. Reeve went from 170 to 212 pounds during pre-production and filming. Many have felt Reeve was typecast in the role during his career. Reeve was paid a mere $250,000 for both Superman and Superman II while his veteran co-stars received huge sums of money: $3.7 million for Brando and $2 million for Hackman for Superman. However, Reeve felt, "'Superman' brought me many opportunities, rather than closing a door in my face." Jeff East portrays teenage Clark Kent. East had his voice overdubbed by Reeve. "I was not happy about it because the producers never told me what they had in mind," East commented. "It was done without my permission but it turned out to be okay. Chris did a good job but it caused tension between us. We resolved our issues with each other years later." East also tore several thigh muscles when performing the stunt of racing alongside the train. He applied 3 to 4 hours of prosthetic makeup daily to facially resemble Reeve.
===Filming===
Principal photography began on March 24, 1977 at Pinewood Studios for Krypton scenes, budgeted as the most expensive film ever made at that point. Since Superman was being shot simultaneously with Superman II, filming lasted for 19 months, until October 1978. Filming was originally scheduled to last between seven and eight months, but problems rose during production. John Barry served as production designer, while Stuart Craig and Norman Reynolds worked as art directors. Derek Meddings and Les Bowie were credited as visual effects supervisors. Stuart Freeborn was the make-up artist, while Barry, David Tomblin, John Glen, David Lane, Robert Lynn and an uncredited Peter Duffell and André de Toth directed second unit scenes. Vic Armstrong was hired as the stunt coordinator and Reeve's stunt double, his wife Wendy Leech was Kidder's double. Superman was also the final complete film by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who died during post-production while working on Tess for director Roman Polanski. The Fortress of Solitude was constructed at Shepperton Studios and at Pinewood's 007 Stage. Upon viewing the footage of Krypton, Warner Bros. decided to distribute in not only North America, but also in foreign countries. Due to complications and problems during filming, Warner Bros. also supplied $20 million and acquired television rights.
New York City doubled for Metropolis, while the New York Daily News Building served as the location for the offices of the Daily Planet. Brooklyn Heights was also used. Filming in New York lasted five weeks, during the time of the New York City blackout of 1977. Production moved to Alberta, Canada for scenes set in Smallville, with the cemetery scene filmed in the canyon of Beynon, Alberta, the high school football scenes at Barons, Alberta, and the Kent farm constructed at Blackie, Alberta. Brief filming also took place in Gallup, New Mexico, Lake Mead and Grand Central Terminal. Director Donner had tensions with the Salkinds and Spengler concerning the escalating production budget and the shooting schedule. Creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz reflected, "Donner never got a budget or a schedule. He was constantly told he was way over schedule and budget. At one point he said, 'Why don't you just schedule the film for the next two days, and then I'll be nine months over?'." Richard Lester, who worked with the Salkinds on The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, was then brought in as a temporary co-producer to mediate the relationship between Donner and the Salkinds, who by now were refusing to talk to each other. With his relationship with Spengler, Donner remarked, "At one time if I'd seen him, I would have killed him."
Lester was offered producing credit but refused, going uncredited for his work. Salkind felt that bringing a second director onto the set meant there would be someone ready in the event that Donner couldn't fulfill his directing duties. "Being there all the time meant he [Lester] could take over," Salkind admitted. "[Donner] couldn't make up his mind on stuff." On Lester, Donner reflected, "He'd been suing the Salkinds for his money on Three and Four Musketeers, which he'd never gotten. He won a lot of his lawsuits, but each time he sued the Salkinds in one country, they'd move to another, from Costa Rica to Panama to Switzerland. When I was hired, Lester told me, 'Don't do it. Don't work for them. I was told not to, but I did it. Now I'm telling you not to, but you'll probably do it and end up telling the next guy.' Lester came in as a 'go-between'. I didn't trust Lester, and I told him. He said, 'Believe me, I'm only doing it because they're paying me the money that they owe me from the lawsuit. I'll never come onto your set unless you ask me; I'll never go to your dailies. If I can help you in any way, call me."
It was decided to stop shooting Superman II and focus on finishing Superman. Donner had already completed 80% of the sequel. At the time the filmmakers were taking a risk: if Superman failed, Superman II would not be finished. The original climax for Superman II had General Zod, Ursa and Non destroying the planet, with Superman time traveling to fix the damage. In the original ending for Superman, the nuclear missile that Superman pushed into outer space happens to strike the Phantom Zone, freeing the three Kryptonian supervillains. The final shot was originally going to be General Zod, Non, and Ursa all flying towards earth, in an ominous sequel hook moment. The sequence can be seen in its entirety at the beginning of Donner's edit of Superman II where it was fully restored.
Donner commented, "I decided if Superman is a success, they're going to do a sequel. If it ain't a success, a cliffhanger ain't gonna bring them to see Superman II."
===Effects===
Superman is well known for its large-scale visual effects sequences, all of which were created before the digital age. The Golden Gate Bridge scale model stood 70 feet long and 20 feet wide. Other miniatures included the Krypton Council Dome and the Hoover Dam. Slow motion was used to simulate the vast amount of water for the Hoover Dam destruction. The Fortress of Solitude was a combination of a full-scale set and matte paintings. Young Clark Kent's long-distance football punt was executed with a wooden football loaded into an air blaster placed in the ground. The Superman costume was to be a much darker blue, but the use of blue screen made it transparent.
The first test for the flying sequences involved simply catapulting a crash test dummy out of a cannon. Another technique had a remote control cast of Superman flying around. Both were discarded due to lack of movement. High quality, realistic-looking animation was tried, with speed trails added to make the effect more convincing.
As detailed in the Superman: The Movie DVD special effects documentary 'The Magic Behind The Cape', presented by optical effects supervisor Roy Field, in the end, three techniques were used to achieve the flying effects.
For landings and take-offs, wire flying riggings were devised and used. On location, these were suspended from tower cranes, whereas in the studio elaborate rigs were suspended from the studio ceilings. Some of the wire-flying work was quite audacious considering computer controlled rigs were not then available — the penultimate shot where Superman flies out of the prison yard for example. Although stuntmen were used, Reeve did much of the work himself, and was suspended as high as 50 feet in the air. Counterweights and pulleys were typically used to achieve flying movement rather than electronic or motorized devices.
For shots where the camera is stationary and Superman is seen flying towards or away from the camera in the frame, blue screen matte shots were used. Reeve would be photographed against a blue screen. While a special device made his cape flap to give the illusion of movement, the actor himself would remain stationary. Instead, the camera would use a mixture of long zoom-ins and zoom-outs to cause him to become larger or smaller in the frame. The blue background would then be photochemically removed and Reeve's isolated image would then be 'inserted' in to a matted area of a background plate shot. The zoom-ins or zoom-outs would give the appearance of flying away or towards the contents of the background plate. The disparity in lighting and colour between the matted image and the background plate, the occasional presence of black matte lines (where the matte area and the matted image — in the case Superman — don't exactly match-up) and the slightly unconvincing impression of movement achieved through the use of long zoom lenses is characteristic of these shots.
For shots where the camera is tracking with Superman as he flies (such as in the Superman and Lois Metropolis flying sequence) front projection was used. This involved photographing the actors suspended in front of a background image dimly projected from the front on to a special screen made by 3M that would reflect light back at many times the original intensity directly in to a combined camera/projector. The result was a very clear and intense photographic reproduction of both the actors and the background plate with far less of the image deterioration or lighting problems than occur with rear projection.
A technique was developed that combined the front projection effect with specially designed zoom lenses. The illusion of movement was created by zooming in on Reeve while making the front projected image appear to recede. For scenes where Superman interacts with other people or objects while in flight, Reeve and actors were put in a variety of rigging equipment with careful lighting and photography. This also led to the creation of the Zoptic system.
The highly reflective costumes worn by the Kryptonians were the result of an accident during Superman flying tests. "We noticed the material lit up on its own," Donner explained. "We tore the material into tiny pieces and glued it on the costumes, designing a front projection effect for each camera. There was a little light on each camera, and it would project into a mirror, bounce out in front of the lens, hit the costume, [and] millions of little glass heads would light up and bring the image back into the camera."
===Music===
Jerry Goldsmith, who scored Donner's The Omen, was originally set to compose Superman. Portions of Goldsmith's work from Capricorn One were used in Superman's teaser trailer. He dropped out over scheduling conflicts and John Williams was hired. Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra to record the soundtrack. The music was one of the last pieces to come into place. Williams liked that the film did not take itself too seriously and that it had a theatrical camp feel to it. Kidder was supposed to sing "Can You Read My Mind?," the lyrics to which were written by Leslie Bricusse, but Donner disliked it and changed it to a composition accompanied by a voiceover. Maureen McGovern eventually recorded the single, "Can You Read My Mind?," in 1979, although the song did not appear on the film soundtrack. It became a mid-chart hit on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.
====2000 Rhino Complete Album====
==Themes==
Superman is divided into three basic sections, each having a distinct theme and visual style. The first segment, set on Krypton, is meant to be typical of science fiction films, but also lays the groundwork for analogy that emerges in the relationship between Jor-El and Kal-El. The second segment, set in Smallville, is reminiscent of 1950s films, and its small-town atmosphere is meant to evoke a Norman Rockwell painting. The third (and largest) segment, set mostly in Metropolis, was an attempt to present the superhero story with as much realism as possible (what Donner called "verisimilitude"), relying on traditional cinematic drama and using only subtle humor instead of a campy approach.
In each of the three acts, the mythic status of Superman is enhanced by events that recall the hero's journey (or monomyth) as described by Joseph Campbell. Each act has a discernable cycle of "call" and journey. The journey is from Krypton to earth in the first act, from Smallville to the Fortress of Solitude in the second act, and then from Metropolis to the whole world in the third act.
Many have noted the examples of apparent Christian symbolism. Donner, Tom Mankiewicz and Ilya Salkind have commented on the use of Christian references to discuss the themes of Superman. Mankiewicz deliberately fostered analogies with Jor-El (God) and Kal-El (Jesus). Donner is somewhat skeptical of Mankiewicz' actions, joking "I got enough death threats because of that."
Several concepts and items of imagery have been used in Biblical comparisons. Jor-El casts out General Zod from Krypton, a parallel to the casting out of Satan from Heaven. The spacecraft that brings Kal-El to Earth is in the form of a star (Star of Bethlehem). Kal-El comes to Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are unable to have children. Martha Kent states, "All these years how we've prayed and prayed that the good Lord would see fit to give us a child," which was compared to the Virgin Mary.
Just as little is known about Jesus during his middle years, Clark travels into the wilderness to find out who he is and what he has to do. Jor-El says, "Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and power are needed. But always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, and they wish to be. They lack only the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son." The theme resembles the Biblical account of God sending his only son Jesus to Earth in hope for the good of mankind. More were seen when Donner was able to complete Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, featuring the fall, resurrection and his battle with evil. Another vision was that of The Creation of Adam.
The Christian imagery in the Reeve films has provoked comment on the Jewish origins of Superman. Rabbi Simcha Weinstein's book Up, Up and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero, says that Superman is both a pillar of society and one whose cape conceals a "nebbish", saying "He's a bumbling, nebbish Jewish stereotype. He's Woody Allen." Ironically, it is also in the Reeve films that Clark Kent's persona has the greatest resemblance to Woody Allen, though his conscious model was Cary Grant's character in Bringing up Baby. This same theme is pursued about 1940s superheroes generally in Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero by Danny Fingeroth.
In the scene where Lois Lane interviews Superman on the balcony, Superman replies, "I never lie." Salkind felt this was an important point in the film, since Superman, living under his secret identity as Clark Kent, is "telling the biggest lie of all time." His romance with Lois also leads him to contradict Jor-El's orders to avoid altering human history, time traveling to save her from dying. Superman instead takes the advice of Jonathan Kent, his father on Earth.
==Release==
Superman was originally scheduled to be released in June 1978, but the problems during filming pushed the film back by six months. Editor Stuart Baird reflected, "Filming was finished in October 1978 and it is a miracle we had the film released three months later. Big-budgeted films today tend to take six to eight months." Donner, for his part, wished that he'd "had another six months; I would have perfected a lot of things. But at some point, you've gotta turn the picture over." Warner Bros. spent $7 million to market and promote the film.
Superman premiered at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC on January 10, 1979. Three days later on January 13, it had a European Royal Charity Premiere at the Empire, Leicester Square in London in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew. It went on to gross $134.21 million in North America and $166 million internationally, totaling $300.21 million worldwide. Superman was the second highest-grossing film of 1978 (behind only Grease), and became the sixth-highest grossing film of all time after its theatrical run. It was also Warner Bros.' most successful film at the time. 
===Critical response===
According to Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of reviewers enjoyed Superman, with the consensus "Superman deftly blends humor and gravitas, taking advantage of the perfectly cast Reeve to craft a loving, nostalgic tribute to an American pop culture icon." By comparison, Metacritic collected an average score of 88, resulting in "universal acclaim", based on 12 reviews. The film was widely regarded as one of top 10 films of 1978. Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster gave a positive reaction. Shuster was "delighted to see Superman on the screen. I got chills. Chris Reeve has just the right touch of humor. He really is Superman".
Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review. "Superman is a pure delight, a wondrous combination of all the old-fashioned things we never really get tired of: adventure and romance, heroes and villains, earthshaking special effects and wit. Reeve is perfectly cast in the role. Any poor choice would have ruined the film". Ebert placed the film on his 10 best list of 1978. He would later go on to place it on his "Great Movies" list. 
Writing in a retrospective review, James Berardinelli believed "there's no doubt that it's a flawed movie, but it's one of the most wonderfully entertaining flawed movies made during the 1970s. It's exactly what comic book fans hoped it would be. Perhaps most heartening of all, however, is the message at the end of the credits announcing the impending arrival of Superman II." Harry Knowles is a longtime fan of the film, but was critical of elements that didn't represent the Superman stories as seen in the comics. Neal Gabler similarly felt that the film focused too much on shallow comedy. He also argued that the film should have adhered more to the spirit of Mario Puzo's original script, and referred to the first three Superman films collectively as "simply puffed-up TV episodes."
===Beyond theatrical release===
The Salkinds prepared a three-hour-plus version for worldwide television reincorporating some 45 minutes of footage and music deleted from the theatrical cut, and specially prepared so that networks and stations can re-edit their own version at their discretion. American Broadcasting Company aired the broadcast television debut of Superman in 1982, with a majority of the unused footage. A syndicated version of the film aired in local television stations in Los Angeles, California and Washington, D.C. in the 1990s included two additional scenes never seen before, in addition to what had been previously reinstated. When Michael Thau and Warner Home Video started working on a film restoration in 2000, some of the extra footage was not added because of poor visual effects. Thau felt "the pace of the film's storyline would be adversely affected. This included timing problems with John William's musical score. The cut of the movie shown on TV was put together to make the movie longer when shown on TV because ABC paid per minute to air the movie. The special edition cut is designed for the best viewing experience in the true spirit of movie making." There was a special test screening of the Special Edition in 2001 in Austin, Texas, on March 23 with plans for a possible wider theatrical release later that year, which did not occur. In May 2001, Warner Home Video released the special edition on DVD. Director Donner also assisted, working slightly over a year on the project. The release included making-of documentaries directed by Thau and eight minutes of restored footage.
Thau explained, "I worked on Ladyhawke and that's how I met Donner and Tom Mankiewicz. I used to hear those wonderful stories in the cutting room that Tom, Donner and Stuart would tell about Superman and that's how I kind of got the ideas for the plots of Taking Flight and Making Superman. Donner commented, "There were a few shots where the Superman costume looked green. We went in and cleaned that up, bringing the color back to where it should be." Thau wanted to make the film shorter, "I wanted to take out the damn flying sequence where Lois is reciting a poem ["Can You Read My Mind"] when they're flying around. I also wanted to take out where it was just generic action. It was like a two-minute car chase. Donner protested and the stuff stayed in." It was followed by a box set release in the same month, containing "bare bones" editions of Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. In November 2006, a four-disc special edition was released, followed by a HD DVD release and Blu-ray. Also available (with other films) is the nine-disc "Christopher Reeve Superman Collection" and the 14-disc "Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition".
===Broadcast television version details===
When the rights to the first Superman film reverted to the Salkinds in 1981, it was their intention to prepare a television cut longer than what was released theatrically, for the aforementioned reasons. The so-called "Salkind International Extended Cut", which ended up running 3 hours, 8 minutes, was shown internationally on television, and it is from this cut that later domestic TV versions were derived.
The first network American television broadcast of Superman: The Movie took place in February 1982 on ABC. The principal sponsor for the telecasts was Atari. At the time, ABC had a contract with Alexander Salkind for the television rights to his films. ABC's 3 hour-2 minute cut of Superman was broadcast over the course of two nights. On the first night it premiered, the film stopped when Lois Lane was falling from the helicopter (the picture froze, creating a cliffhanger-type of ending for part one). The next evening, there was naturally a recap before the film continued. This expanded version was repeated in November of the same year, only this time, shown in one night. The next two ABC showings after that were the original theatrical version. Apparently, in their contract with ABC, the Salkinds were able to get money for every minute of footage shown on TV. So as a result, they crammed in as much footage as possible for the TV networks in order to maximize their revenues. During production of the film, Alexander and Ilya had been relegated to having to sell more and more of their rights back to Warner Bros. in exchange for financial help. Director Richard Donner was not consulted on any of the extended versions. However, due to a clause in his contract, Donner's name remains in the credits.
Also as previously mentioned, some 40 minutes of footage were reinstated for the initial ABC-TV telecasts of the film. Among the highlighted moments:
*A subplot of an Executioner (a Kryptonian security officer) being dispatched by the council to investigate Jor-El (while the beginning of the scene is shown in the 2000 director's cut restoration, the scene where he is killed is not in the latter version).
*When Superman is trying to get to Lex Luthor's underground hideout, he is subjected to machine gun fire, a giant blow torch, and is frozen in ice. A tiny fraction of this footage was used in the theatrical version Superman II (directed by Richard Lester), in the scene where Superman's powers are stripped away by the molecule chamber in the Fortress of Solitude.
*Lex Luthor plays the piano in two scenes; first, to Miss Teschmacher's disgust, he plays a funeral dirge while Otis feeds "the babies" a giant slab of raw meat down a pit that "the babies" quickly devour. Near the end, as punishment for foiling his "crime of the century", he forces Otis to drop her into the pit while gently playing "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", but at the very last moment she is rescued by Superman, who pointedly notes for Luthor to hear, "By the way, Miss Teschmacher, your mother sends her love," a reference to Luthor's boast about Hackensack, NJ.
*The little girl who sees the teenage Clark Kent running faster than the train is revealed to be Lois Lane, a fact revealed when her parents talk to her by name. This revelation scene is not present in the shorter theatrical release. Only in the ABC version are young Lois Lane and her father seen in the train. 
*In the ABC version, Otis' walk down the street is longer.
*Nearly all of John Williams' score is restored (some of which was dialed out of the theatrical cut).
However, at least one noticeable removal occurred: the recording of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, heard in the original film in the minutes before the death of Glenn Ford's character, is replaced with a generic piece of instrumental music in the ABC cut.
When the rights reverted to Warner Bros. in 1985, CBS aired the film one last time on network television in its theatrical version. When Superman: The Movie entered the syndication market in 1988 (following a play-out run on pay cable) TV stations were offered the extended cut or the theatrical cut. The stations that showed the extended cut edited the second half to squeeze in commercials and 'What happened yesterday flashbacks'.
In May 1994 (following a pay cable reissue and obligatory run on USA Network), Warner Bros. offered the aforementioned "Salkind International Extended Cut" (a 3-hour, 8-minute version, prepared by the Salkinds, and from which the ABC version was derived), which was shown in Los Angeles on KCOP. This version also surfaced outside of Los Angeles. For example, WJLA Channel 7, an ABC affiliate out of Washington, D.C. aired the "Salkind International Extended Cut" on Saturday, July 27, 1994. Part one aired from 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. before breaking for 30 minutes of news. Part two was then aired from 12:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.
The extended version of Superman: The Movie has never been broadcast in the United Kingdom. The first showing of the theatrical version on UK-TV appeared on January 4, 1983 on ITV. In 1985, Ireland's RTE television aired the extended versions of Superman: The Movie and Superman II in one night. The films ran from roughly 3:00 until 9:00 including the odd commercial and a break for the 6:00 news.
The quality of the extended network TV version is inferior to any theatrical or current home video release because it was mastered in 16mm (using the "film chain system") and a mono sound mix done as by the time the extended cut was prepared in 1981, stereo was not available in television broadcasts. Eight of the 45 minutes of extended scenes that were used in the later 2000 director's cut restoration were taken from restored elements.
There are various extended TV versions each broadcast in various countries. Most of these are in pan and scan, as they were made in the 1980s, when films were not letterboxed to preserve the theatrical aspect ratio on old TVs. None of the various extended versions have ever been made available officially on home video/DVD, although they have been widely bootlegged.
==Legacy==
Superman was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Film Editing – (Stuart Baird), Best Music (Original Score) – (John Williams) and Best Sound Mixing – (Gordon K. McCallum, Graham V. Hartstone, Nicolas Le Messurier and Roy Charman)), and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. Donner publicly expressed disgust that production designer John Barry and cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth had not been recognized.
Superman was successful at the 32nd British Academy Film Awards. Reeve won Best Newcomer, while Hackman, Unsworth, Barry and the sound designers earned nominations. The film won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. At the Saturn Awards, Kidder, Barry, John Williams and the visual effects department received awards, and the film won Best Science Fiction Film. Reeve, Hackman, Donner, Valerie Perrine and costume designer Yvonne Blake were nominated for their work as well. In addition, Williams was nominated for the 36th Golden Globe Awards and won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. In 2007, the Visual Effects Society listed Superman as the 44th most influential use of visual effects of all time. In 2008, Empire magazine named it the #174 greatest film of all-time on its list of 500. The film also received recognition from the American Film Institute. Superman was selected as the 26th greatest film hero of all time. The film was considered for the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers list, but didn't make it past the ballot. In 2009, Entertainment Weekly ranked Superman 3rd on their list of The All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.
With the film's success, it was immediately decided to finish Superman II. Ilya and Alexander Salkind and Pierre Spengler did not ask Donner to return because Donner had criticized them during the film's publicity phase. Donner commented in January 1979, "I'd work with Spengler again, but only on my terms. As long as he has nothing to say as the producer, and is just liaison between Alexander Salkind and his money, that's fine. If they don't want it on those terms, then they need to go out and find another director, it sure as shit ain't gonna be me." Kidder, who portrayed Lois Lane, was dissatisfied by the producers' decision, and also criticized the Salkinds during publicity. As a result, Kidder was only given a cameo appearance for Superman III, and not a main supporting role. Jack O'Halloran, who portrayed Non, stated, "It was great to work with Donner. Richard Lester was as big an asshole as the Salkinds." Two more films, Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), were produced. Superman Returns was released in 2006. Director Bryan Singer credited Superman: The Movie as an influence for Superman Returns, and even used restored footage of Brando as Jor-El. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut also was released in 2006.
The film's final sequence, which features Superman flying high above the Earth at sunrise, and breaking the fourth wall to smile briefly at the camera, featured at the end of every Superman film starring Reeve, and was re-shot with Brandon Routh for Superman Returns.
Because Superman went into production prior to the releases of Star Wars (May 1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (November 1977), some observers credit the three films collectively for launching the reemergence of a large market for science fiction films in the 1980s. This is certainly the view of Superman producer Ilya Salkind and some who have interviewed him, as well as of film production assistant Brad Lohan. Other observers of film history tend to credit the resurgence of science fiction films simply to the Lucas and Spielberg productions, and see Superman as the first of the new cycle of films launched by the first two. Ilya Salkind denies any connection between Superman—which began filming in March 1977—and the other films, stating that "I did not know about 'Star Wars'; 'Star Wars' did not know about 'Superman'; 'Close Encounters' did not know about 'Superman.' It really was completely independent — nobody knew anything about anybody." Superman also established the superhero film genre as viable outside the world of Saturday matinee serials, although it was a decade before the comparable success of the Batman series and two decades before that of X-Men and Spider-Man.
American Film Institute Lists
*AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
**Superman – #26 Hero
**Lex Luthor — Nominated Villain
*AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
**Can You Read My Mind — Nominated
*AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
**"I'm here to fight for truth, justice, and the American way." – Nominated
*AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated
*AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated
*AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Fantasy Film
===Comic book continuity===
Many elements of the Superman mythos which were once unique to the film have since been incorporated into the regular continuity of the DC Comics universe:
* the crystalline-based technology of the planet Krypton
* Superman's "S" logo originates as the El family crest
* Ursa and Non—characters created specifically for the film—are imprisoned in the Phantom Zone with General Zod
* A computer-generated simulacrum of Jor-El survives in the Fortress of Solitude to advise his adult son Kal-El
* Clark Kent commences his public superhero career as the adult Superman, rather than the teenage Superboy
* Lois Lane first meets Superman when he rescues her as she falls from a disabled helicopter in Metropolis
* In one version of this encounter, the characters greet each other using the same dialogue from this scene in the film (Superman: "Easy, Miss, I've got you." Lois: "You've got me ... who's got you?")
* Lois is the one who first names the hero "Superman"
* Jonathan Kent dies of a heart attack, but Martha survives as his widow
* Although she is an excellent reporter, Lois frequently misspells words
==External links==
*Official site
*Superman on IMDb
*Superman at Rotten Tomatoes
*Superman at AllMovie
*Superman at Metacritic
*Superman at TV.com
*Superman at the TCM Movie Database
*Superman at Box Office Mojo
*Arn Saba (December 16, 1978). "Kidder on Kidder". Weekend Magazine.
*Jonathan Bristol (March 1979). "Superman-The Effects". Starburst. pp. 21–28.
*Behind-the-scenes photos
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