Movies - Superman: The Movie

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	Movies - Superman: The Movie

Superman (as it was shown on-screen and in the movie poster--see illustration), also known as Superman: The Movie (as it was called in pre-release advertising), is a superhero movie, released by Warner Bros. in 1978, and based on the popular DC Comics character of the same name.

Christopher Reeve starred in the title role and that of Clark Kent, while top-billed Marlon Brando played Superman's father, Jor-El — for a record-setting salary at the time — of $4,700,000 for eight minutes of screen time; other prominent cast members were Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Ned Beatty as Otis, Jackie Cooper as Perry White, Glenn Ford as Pa Kent, Valerie Perrine as Eve Teschmacher, Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen, and Jeff East as the young Clark Kent. It was directed by Richard Donner and executive produced by Ilya Salkind, with music by John Williams.

Superman received a "Special Achievement" Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, in one of the years when there was no competition for the award. It was nominated for Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound.

The movie led to three theatrical sequels, Superman II
(1980), Superman III
(1983) and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
(1987) and inspired the Salkind-backed Supergirl (1984). The upcoming Superman Returns
will be reportedly based on the continuity of the 1978 movie, and will include footage with Marlon Brando as Jor-El that was shot during Superman: The Movies production that was to be used in Superman II.

Taglines:
You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!

The movie that makes a legend come to life.

Production history
Although Warner Brothers had acquired DC Comics in the 1960s through a series of corporate mergers, there was little interest from the studio to exploit DC's most famous heroic character. The father-and-son producing team of Alexander
and Ilya Salkind
had enjoyed some success with European-based productions, and along with their longtime partner, producer Pierre Spengler
, signed a negative pickup deal with Warners, under which they themselves would assume responsibility for fronting the production costs. This deal was consummated primarily on the basis that the film would potentially star Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, two of the biggest marquee names of the mid-seventies --- but in the early days of the project's development, no one was actually sure as to what part either actor would play. A relatively unknown Nick Nolte
was signed for the part of Superman and a script was commissioned in 1976 to be written by Mario Puzo, with re-writes being assigned to Robert Benton
and the husband-wife team of David Newman and Leslie Newman.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Superman: The Movie ]

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