Seeing Christopher Reeve "Truly Seem to Fly" for the First Time as Superman Made Crew Members Cry
When director Richard Donner took on the directing duties of the 1978 film Superman, the filmmaker’s goal was to make audiences believe that a man could really fly. The first thing they had to do was cast the right actor, and after meeting with several big A-list Hollywood actors in Hollywood including Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, and Sylvester Stallone, Donner ended up casting Christopher Reeve, who was perfect.
Donner explained that a lot of actors wanted the role and the studio gave him a list of all these names, and he told them: “Listen. Your flying stuff is shit, and I have to create a man who flies. Even if you saw Paul Newman or Robert Redford in that costume, no one is going to believe them.” So, he went with more of an unknown actor to help audiences believe. It was the right and smart move.
At the time visual effects were very limited. Obviously, they didn’t have the kind of technology filmmakers have to work with today. But, they managed to figure out how to pull it off. It took them a bit of time to actually find something that worked. Donner talked about those flying tests saying:
“Every day for eight months, we’d run these tests of flying and look at dailies. A wonderful man came into our life, Zoran Perisic. In those days, a front projection unit was massive and weighed about a ton. And he had invented a front projection unit that weighed 35 or 40 pounds. It had a zoom on the projector and on the lens that was photographing all parts of this. So you could zoom and move. The camera was flexible. He came to me and we ran all these tests and I said, ‘This is f—ing great!’”
Donner ended up going to producer Alexander Salkind for some money so that Perisic could finish developing the system for the film. The director really wanted this and needed $25K to make it happen, but Salkind wouldn’t give him the money. Luckily, Warner Bros. stepped in and put it up. Donner went on to talk about the day they saw Superman “truly seem to fly” saying:
“And the day we saw [Superman truly seem to] fly for the first time, there was dead silence. A couple of guys that ran the flying unit were crying, because it was so good.”
What an exciting and thrilling moment that must’ve been for everyone who was there to witness that for the first time. It brought crew members to tears, and everyone was in awe. The first time I saw Superman was as a young kid on a small TV, but It was such a magical thing to see Superman fly, and I believed it.
Source: THR