Superman The Movie

( 1978)

It ended up being a turning point of my life. I was brought up on Superman. But when they sent the script to me, I read it, and my first reaction was, “They’re destroying an American hero.” It was almost a comedy. [ Screenwriter] Tom Mankiewicz and I sat down and there were two things we decided it had to be. One was you really had to believe a man can fly. The effects had to be fantastic. The other thing we said was, “It’s gotta be a love story. There’s gotta be some sort of unrequited love.” Because you want to care about these people. We wanted them to have their own humanities. They had a reality and we had to stay within it. It could be funny, but it had to be straight… Superman personifies hope. He’s as pure as the day is long, to the extent of being a total square. That’s the beauty of it. When I hear Donald Trump talking on television, which I try not to do, I think, “Oh my god. This is the kind of evil that Superman was put on Earth to eliminate!” But Superman’s so honest, he’ll go on forever and ever and ever.

If we were Richard Donner we would have kept that newspaper.

Red, white and blue. And a bit of yellow.