Origins

When producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind set out to make a Superman film, they enlisted The Godfather author Mario Puzo to write the screenplay.

Puzo delivered a sprawling 500-page script designed to span two movies. His draft was later revised by writers David and Leslie Newman, along with Robert Benton.

But when director Richard Donner came on board, he felt the script needed a complete rewrite. He believed it undermined the integrity of the iconic character.

Donner recalled: “It was disparaging. It was just gratuitous action.

“I’m reading this thing and Superman’s looking for Lex Luthor in Metropolis, and he’s looking for every bald head in the city. And then he flies down and taps a guy on the shoulder and it’s [Kojak’s] Telly Savalas, who hands him a lollipop and says, ‘Who loves ya, baby?’”

Having grown up reading Superman comics, Donner was passionate about staying true to the source material.

He said: “I was brought up on Superman as a kid. There was a whole point in my life where I read Superman,” he said. “So, when I was finished with it, I was like, ‘Man, if they make this movie, they are destroying the legend of Superman.’ I wanted to do it just to defend him.”