Super Facts: Superman: The Movie grossed $300 million worldwide (53% non-North America)— the equivalent of $1.09 billion today. But, that doesn’t tell the whole story. The #2 national box office in the world now is China, a market that simply didn’t exist for foreign films in 1978. As a comparison, Aquaman which earned $1.1 billion in global box office took in $291 million in China. Add to that markets with significantly more advanced economies or open borders than they had in 1978 and Superman’s box office looks even more impressive.
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Added to wiki
Special effects
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On the first poll question, whether Brando was worth the dough, in the end I voted no. Certainly, not for what he put on the screen. The argument has to be about the movie being taken seriously because his name is attached. There’s some value to that, but ultimately the movie makes it or breaks it on its own. And getting Hackman and another name actor for Jor-El still would be good buzz material.
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We should be starting the second week soon, focusing on Smallville and the Fortress.
The following link summaizes the major scenes of this week, including where the scene was filmed, before continuing with Metroplex and the other scenes of the film
Note
In the movie
The Golden Gate Bridge was a minature
Per the previus special link.above
The real bridge was not harmed in any way
In.this movie.
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The truth is Margot KIdder is horribly miscast— and then she’s brilliant anyway.
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Re Margot
From Superman by Larrry Tye
Margot Kidder fell into her part. “She literally tripped into the door when she arrived for her test,” says Donner, “and I looked at Lynn and said, ‘That’s Lois.’ ”
Growing up in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Kidder was banned from watching television, reading comic books, or doing anything else that would have put her in touch with Superman.
She didn’t have to be. To play Lois Lane she just had to be herself: “I’m manic and I’m overambitious and I’m often frantic and disorganized.”
When Donner told her she had the part that stars like Stockard Channing and Leslie Ann Warren wanted, she thought, “ ‘Thank God, I really need the money!’ Then I went out and to the best lingerie boutique on Beauchamp Place in London and bought six hundred bucks’ worth of underwear!”
She also went to charm school, courtesy of her director, learning how to wear high heels rather than cowboy boots and to sit in a skirt instead of blue jeans. In the end Kidder was what old fans had always imagined Lois Lane looked like, and what young ones would from 1978 on.
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They never would have gotten green lighted without Brando. Especially since they used an unknown as Superman.
I’m not sure Batman’89 would have gotten a green light (or certainly the budget it got. (The highest in history to that point) had they not gotten Jack.
Especially with Superman, the last theatrical super hero movie was Batman’66 and while it did OK, it was not a “blockbuster”. So there was trepidation in making comic book movies & the notion that Brando would “put butts in seats” & and without him it was a very real financial concern. Just Brando being in it gave it “gravitas”. That late in his career, he was always over paid, but he knew his “gravitas” value and a few people paid for it.
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Hi everybody
@msgtv has a family emergency and needs to concentratr all his efforts on his family. If you can, please pray for him and his family.
@Applejack has asked I help out while he is not available, so here I am.
The following is a draft from msgtv on Week 2
Topic suggestions Week 2: Smallville and the Fortress of Solitude
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Special Effects: The most significant special effects for this segment is Clark racing the train and the creation of the Fortress. Do these effects work for you.
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The feel of the picture changes with Smallville. What are your thoughts on this segment and how it compares to Krypton.
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The Fortress scenes with voice-over from Brando allows the film to skip Superman’s formative years learning to be Superman. What do you think of this decision.
Thanks everybody.
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Super Facts
A famous scene in the Smallville Section of the movie is young Clark racing the train
By the way, the film does ‘shout outs’ to the beginning of the radio and tv shows. This is 'the ‘more powerful then a locomotive’ part
In the version in our library, we only see a young girl ,with her parents, who sees Clark run.
In other versions of the movie, there is dialogue between the three. So we know who they are.
From IMDB Trivia
When the young Clark Kent races the train, he is said to be eighteen years old, while Lois Lane, who is inside the train, appears to be considerably younger.
Margot Kidder, who played the adult Lois, was four years older than Christopher Reeve, who played the adult Clark.
This can easily be explained from the comic book source material where Superman has been shown to have a slower metabolizim and ages much slower than human. This is either due to not being human at all, or from the abilities given to him by earth’s yellow sun.
Cameos
Noel Neill: Lois Lane’s mother. Neill played Lois Lane in Superman (1948), Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) and Adventures of Superman (1952). She appears when the young Lois sees Clark Kent running extremely fast from a train window.
Kirk Alyn: Lois Lane’s father. Alyn played Superman in Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950). He appears when the young Lois sees Clark Kent running extremely fast from a train window.
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This is well put. I remember as a kid sitting in the cinema when the movie started. Up until that point all I knew was George Reeves as Superman, plus the comics and Superfriends . There was no home video yet, so I had not seen Kirk Alyn or the Fleishman cartoons. I may have seen the 60’s Superman cartoon in repeats but can’t remember. Also, at that time there had not been a big budget superhero movie. So the sequence really pulled me (and probably other movie goers) into the Donnerverse. It is really striking when the camera focuses on the Daily Planet building in the comic on screen, and it fades into a “real” Daily Planet building. When the camera points upward moves toward the stars it really brought me along. Without the context of where superhero movie were and the depiction of Kal-El up to that time, the beginning sequence can seem out of place. But every time I see I still get the feeling I had when I was a child in the cinema.
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Some More Super Facts
On Smallville Segment and the young Clark Kent
From.IMDB Trivia
The Kansas scenes were shot near Calgary, Alberta, because their growing season was ahead, and the wheat fields were at the right height.
When Superman crashes to Earth, his first feat of strength is lifting a truck over his head. The first appearance of Superman (Action Comics No. 1) featured a cover of Superman lifting a car over his head.
Christopher Reeve (Superman) does not appear on screen until 48 minutes into the film. However, his voice is heard in the Smallville scenes, as he dubbed Jeff East. Gene Hackman, who plays principal villain Lex Luthor, is not fully seen until just over an hour into the film.
Jeff East, who played Clark Kent as a teenager, auditioned to play him as an adult. He also auditioned for the role of Jimmy Olsen.
It took three to four hours every day to apply the make-up on Jeff East to make him resemble Christopher Reeve.
Jeff East, who played young teenaged Clark in the middle section of the movie, was not happy when Donner dubbed his voice with Christopher Reeve in the movie: “(I was) Not happy about it because the producers never told me what they had in mind! It was done without my permission and it turned out to be okay. Chris did a good job but it caused tension between us!” He said there was tension between him and Reeve for years after that until later when they worked at a charity function together: " We resolved our issues with each other years later and I was with Chris in Niagara Falls 2001 to raise money for the Christopher Reeve Foundation! It was a very important resolve for us both
To achieve the shot of young Clark Kent kicking a football into orbit, an air cannon was placed underground and the football fired from it.
Jeff East tore several thigh muscles when performing the stunt of racing alongside the train.
A man riding a motorcycle dragging a bag of dirt was used to make the effect of Clark running down the dirt road after jumping in front of the train.
Ironically Lex Luthor, AKA Gene Hackman’s brother Richard, saved young Superman, AKA Jeff East, from being killed during the shoot. East described the incident during a recent interview: “Gene Hackman’s brother Richard saved my life on one day of shooting. I was doing the shot of jumping in front of the train and the crane moved past the mark and I swung into the oncoming train. Richard Hackman caught me as I swung back into the camera area. If he had not caught me I would been hit by the oncoming train and most likely injured if not killed! A very scary moment! Thanks Richard!”
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Some More
Super.Facts from IMDB Trivia
Fact 1
We first see Christopher Reeve in his Superman costume flying around the
Fortrese of Solitude
That occurs 48 minutes into the movie
Super Fact 2
Christopher Reeve proved to be an even greater asset than anticipated after being cast. Reeve flew gliders as a hobby and used his experience as a pilot to make Superman’s flying feel more believable.
Super Fact 3
Casting director Lynn Stalmaster was the first to suggest Christopher Reeve for the title role, but Richard Donner and the Salkinds felt he was too young and too skinny.
Nevertheless, Reeve did an excellent screen test that blew the director and producers away.
Once he had the part, he underwent a strict physical training session going from 170 pounds to 212 in the period from pre-production to filming.
Ironically, Darth Vader helped train Superman to be in top physical condition to appear in the movie.
In order to fill out the suit, the decidedly Clark Kent-esque Reeve underwent an intense bodybuilding regimen with David Prowse - the man inside the Darth Vader costume in Star Wars. He gained nearly thirty pounds of muscle between pre-production and filming.
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Super Fact
Re Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman flatly refused to shave his head or wear a “bald cap” to play Lex Luthor. To get around this issue, Hackman’s own natural hair was styled differently from scene to scene to give the appearance of him having changed hairpieces. Numerous hairpieces are visible in his underground complex. Hackman relented and wore a skullcap in one scene, when he is taken to prison by Superman. It is visible when he angrily rips off his hairpiece to address the prison’s warden, who questions who he is.
Initially, Gene Hackman refused to cut off his mustache to play Lex Luthor. In early one-sheets of the movie, his face is featured with a mustache. Before Richard Donner and Hackman met face-to-face, Donner proposed to Hackman that if he would cut his mustache, Donner would cut his too, and Hackman agreed. It turned out later that Donner did not have a mustache at all. He wore a false moustache that he peeled off at the last moment.
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After watching the Smallville part of the movie, there are two clues that once Clark becomea a teenager he ages more slowly and might live for hundreds of years
On the train seqment, young Lois is much younger than Clark
When Clark leaves Smallville he looks the same but Martha Kent has aged a lot since the death of her husband.
That may mean Clark is at the Fortrese for more than 12 Earth.years, for Lois to be an adult snd not a teenager.
Maybe he is 30 in Krypton Years
Remember the song on the radio in the car with Lana and her friends Is Bill Haley Rock Aound the Clock, released in 1955
Teenagers don’t usually listen to Nostalgia Radio Channels, just ones with current music
Finally when. Jor el. first talks to Clark, he says Clark.is 18 but he has bern dead for thousands of years. I don’t know what to make of that. The rocket journey was that long? Kal el was a baby in Krypton.but older when he reached Earth.
Later in the Metropolis section, reading from the Daily Planet article Lois wrote about her intervire with Superman, he says Krypton exploded in 1048 and it took three years for the rocket to get to Earth. Was there any food on.the rocket?
Dis anybody read the screenplay for inconsistencies?
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Wait…so I was never a teenager? 
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I meant in general
And you were born a wise old soul.
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Maybe Clark is, too. He’s certainly not hip by Metropolis standards. 
I do wonder if Clark attended a university to obtain his journalism degree at the same time that he was training in the Fortress. The movie is ambiguous on that point. If he got his degree beforehand during a gap between Pa Kent’s funeral and his departure to the Fortress, then a long period of total isolation might explain why he was so awkward in the present. Perhaps his “aw shucks” attitude wasn’t completely an act.
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I agree, when I first saw behind the scene where he read off of cue card, I didn’t think he’s that great of a actor. Maybe they should’ve had like Orson Welles or young Anthony Hopkins as Jor-el.
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I’m sure learning alot! The Smallville scene was really nice.
Few years ago, someone record and posted on YouTube of the old Kent farm, it’s still standing at that time, old and rundown, it looks different as it age for years. I’m not sure if it still standing today in 2020, but it was really interesting to see.
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Oh, dear. That would be a drunken embarrassment.
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