When Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS finally hit theaters in the summer of 2006 after a long gestation period, synergistic cable TV and DVD responded with LOOK, UP IN THE SKY: THE AMAZING STORY OF SUPERMAN, a wonderful two-hour documentary about the Man of Steel’s history on the screens big and small.
But it was hardly the whole story. Far from it: They left out all the sordid parts, tortured conflict and attempted stabbings, as Jake Rossen’s SUPERMAN VS. HOLLYWOOD: HOW FIENDISH PRODUCERS, DEVIOUS DIRECTOR, AND WARRING WRITERS GROUNDED AN AMERICAN ICON makes as clear as the crystals in the Fortress of Solitude.
If the opening notes of John Williams’ iconic score to 1978’s SUPERMAN makes the hair on your arms stand on end, or if you just flock to true-life stories of Hollywood egos run rampant, SUPERMAN VS. HOLLYWOOD will fascinate you. It may be the best entertainment-oriented book of 2008.
Through personal interviews with some of the players and lots of research, Rossen pieces together Supes’ many births and deaths as a TV and motion-picture franchise, beginning with the celebrated Fleischer brothers’ cartoons of the 1940s. Just as DC Comics dicked Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster out of serious paydays, so did Paramount to Max and Dave Fleischer. Immediately, Rossen shares bits you probably never knew, like how the siblings ceased talking to one another over adultery issues.
George Reeves’ troubles on TV’s THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN are well-known, but Rossen digs even deeper. However, the juiciest sections arrive in the making of the now-classic SUPERMAN film, which made an instant star of Christopher Reeve. And don’t think that didn’t go to his head; as costar Jack O’Halloran puts it, Reeve wasn’t a very nice person until his fateful horse accident paralyzed him.
It’s amazing that the film turned out to be SUPERMAN instead of SUPERMAN IV, given producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind’s extreme ineptness with dealing with a production this massive, not to mention paying the unlikely Mario Puzo millions for an unfilmable script and basic unfamiliarity with the character. Only director Richard Donner and the luck of a great cast seemed to save it from becoming a disaster.
But disaster would come, of course, with the much-covered fallout between the Salkinds and Donner that would have the former firing the latter in the midst of SUPERMAN II. The diminishing-quality sequels that followed – and the failed spinoff of SUPERGIRL – also made Superman the box-office poison that Hollywood assumed him to be prior to the first film proving them wrong.
Rossen’s book also tracks the syndicated-TV awfulness of SUPERBOY, the network interference of LOIS & CLARK and the phoenix-like reimagining of SMALLVILLE. And, of course, the 10-year stumblethon that became SUPERMAN RETURNS, whose development was hampered by startlingly horrible decisions from producer Jon Peters, peculiar casting decisions, a famously wrongheaded script pass by J.J. Abrams, and a merry-go-round of in-and-out creative players, including flashy directors McG and Brett Ratner. Thankfully, neither ended up at the helm of the picture, but at least Ratner gets in some digs at studio Internet shill Harry Knowles, labeling him a “hypocrite.”
Even if you think you’ve heard all there is to hear about Supes on the screen, SUPERMAN VS. HOLLYWOOD will prove to be a real eye-opener. It’s revelatory without being overly gossipy, replying on sources rather than rumors. Plus, it’s just vastly entertaining – a true Hollywood story I didn’t want to end and could not put down. –Rod Lott
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I gotta pick this one up!
They’re not exactly the same type of books, but it was a coincidence to see this review only a couple days after ordering both The Kryptonite Kid and The Superlative Man.
However, the juiciest sections arrive in the making of the now-classic SUPERMAN film, which made an instant star of Christopher Reeve. And don’t think that didn’t go to his head; as costar Jack O’Halloran puts it, Reeve wasn’t a very nice person until his fateful horse accident paralyzed him.
Sometimes I wonder if Jack O’Halloran is speaking ill of the dead. To quote someone from the executive board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, “Maybe a Phantom Zone will come and take Jack away from the Earth.”
I couldn’t have phrased it better, myself.
Jack O’Halloran who played Non, one of the Kryptonian supervillains in Superman – The Movie and Superman II: “Christopher had never done anything [before Superman – The Movie].
His claim to fame was a soap. Being Superman was a big step into the limelight. He thought he was a superstar. Chris started believing his own press.
He wasn’t the nicest of people until he got hurt. And when he got hurt, he became a nice person. He helped a lot of people with a lot of courage.
Prior to that, he snubbed kids, he was too busy for this, too busy for that.”
Either O’Halloran is speaking ill of the dead, or he is just suffering from a dose of professional jealousy!
Either way, his comments were definately uncalled for!