The iconic 1978 movie that waited too long and lost Steven Spielberg: “Look, this is the guy”
One of the easiest rules in Hollywood should be that if Steven Spielberg wants to direct your movie, then you let Steven Spielberg direct your movie. And yet, it hasn’t always been followed.
It hasn’t happened often, which is hardly surprising when he’s been one of Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers since the 1970s, but it’s still surprising that it’s happened at all. With the benefit of hindsight, though, it’s hard to say it didn’t work out in the best interests of all parties.
Spielberg twice pitched himself to Cubby Broccoli as the ideal candidate to helm a James Bond film, but after being rejected on both counts, he opted to take what he loved about 007 and turn it into something original, which saw him collaborate with George Lucas on a character called Indiana Jones.
On the other occasion, the director made Close Encounters of the Third Kind instead, which netted him his first Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Director’. All’s well that ends well, it would appear, but that doesn’t make the what-ifs of Spielberg steering 1978’s Superman to the silver screen any less enticing.
After all, this was the blockbuster that made audiences believe that a man could fly, propelled Christopher Reeve to stardom, and influenced Christopher Nolan, James Gunn, and countless other filmmakers who grew up awestruck by Richard Donner’s box-office-busting comic book adaptation.
Producer Ilya Salkind desperately wanted Spielberg, but his father, Alexander, was sceptical. Understandably so, since Jaws hadn’t yet been released when the pair were recruiting a director, but he was left with superpowered egg on his face when it became the highest-grossing release in cinema history.
“We have this kid who wants to direct Superman,” Ilya was told. “He loves Superman, that’s his kind of stuff, and he wants to do it.” He was intrigued, so he did a little digging. “I immediately checked what he had done, and went to see his films, and immediately set, ‘OK, this kid’s got it; this guy’s got talent.'”
He went to his old man and unequivocally stated the case for Spielberg, telling him, “Look, this is the guy.” The notoriously frugal Alexander had caught wind of Jaws going massively over-budget, which didn’t allay his fears, at least until it opened and changed the business forever, by which point it was too late.
By then, he’s already committed to Close Encounters as his next picture, slamming the window of opportunity shut. Donner’s Superman remains an iconic entry into its genre of choice, but it could have been Spielberg’s movie if the Salkinds hadn’t wasted so much time debating whether he was the guy. As history has repeatedly shown, he was, and is, the guy.
